Guided Onboarding

This guide includes instructions for both direct businesses and third-party vendors. Third party vendors include independent software vendors (ISVs) who are implementing WhatsApp on behalf of another company or brand. Under each step, look for the Note for ISVs subheading to find specific instructions.

Before getting started, please make sure your business meets the eligibility criteria for the WhatsApp Business Platform.

If you want to use your number, and that number has never been registered with the WhatsApp Business API, then it can be used to register with Twilio. You will still need to follow the steps described in this guide.

• If you want to port your number to Twilio, please read our support article about moving an existing WhatsApp Number to Twilio.

• If you just want to register your own number without porting it to Twilio, please read our support article about activating your own number.

Note for ISVs

When onboarding a new End Client, you will need to have the following information handy:

• Client's Meta Business Manager ID - Your client will need to have created a Meta Business Manager prior to you submitting this form
• Client's Legal Business Name
• Client's Contact Email Address - This should be whoever will be filling out the form to accept the End Client terms

Navigate to the Messaging > Senders > WhatsApp Senders section in the Twilio Console. Click the WhatsApp Sender submission button to create a new sender profile. If you already have a WhatsApp sender, click "Create new Sender".

Expand image

ISVs Only - Client Information

If this is the first WhatsApp Sender for a new End Client, you will need to enter in your Client's information. This replaces the request access form.

Expand image

Select a phone number

Expand image

Fill out your WhatsApp Sender Profile information

Expand image

Twilio will then submit your Display Name to WhatsApp. You will receive automated confirmation through Zendesk that your Profile Information form has been received.

Logos are not reviewed by WhatsApp and can be set by submitting a link to an image as part of your WhatsApp Sender Profile. Please be aware of the following requirements when submitting a logo:

• Minimum size restriction: 640x640 pixels
• Maximum size restriction: 5 MB
• Square aspect ratio
• PNG or JPG (JPG recommended)
• No clear (alpha) background

You can update your logo after your sender profile is approved by navigating to the WhatsApp Senders page and clicking on the sender.

The logo must only represent a brand that you own and operate. Operating a sender with another brand's logo is considered impersonation and is against WhatsApp's terms of service.

For the first WhatsApp Sender in an Account, when you receive notice that Twilio has submitted your Display Name and number to WhatsApp, you will need to approve Twilio to send messages on your behalf. You will receive an email to "Approve Twilio to message on behalf of" in your Meta Business Messenger. This email usually has the subject "WhatsApp Profile Request."

Go to the Facebook Business Manager console and approve Twilio to "message on behalf of." You can find this request by following this link, or navigating to business.facebook.com > Business Settings > Requests section. Once there, click the Approve button.

Expand image

If you have already verified your Meta Business Manager account previously, you will not need to complete this step again. Consult Meta's documentation about verifying your business for more information.

As soon as you receive the ability to "Approve" Twilio to send messages on your behalf, you will be able to verify your Meta Business Manager account if you have not already done so. In the Meta Business Manager>> Settings console, click the Start or Continue button under in the Verification section.

Expand image

(The verification button may be greyed out prior to starting the onboarding process.)

You may be required to upload supporting documents to verify your business. See Meta's guide on uploading official documents to verify your business for more information.

The Meta Business Verification process can take anywhere from 5 to 20 business days, depending on your region and company type. If you have not heard back from Meta in more than 10 business days, please let the Twilio team know.

After you approve Twilio to message on your behalf, Twilio will complete the registration process to register your WhatsApp sender. You will receive an email confirmation that Twilio has finalized the registration of your profile.

At this point, your Sender is ready to receive messages from customers in production. You can test this by sending a WhatsApp message to your Twilio number and checking the Message Logs section in the Twilio Console. Once you receive a message, you can reply within 24 hours with free-form messages. You can read more about Conversational messaging with WhatsApp here.

To start conversations with new users, or with existing users who have not sent you a message for more than 24 hours, you are required to use a message template. To submit a message template, navigate to Messaging > Senders > WhatsApp Templates.
Learn more about WhatsApp Message Templates here.

1
// Download the helper library from https://www.twilio.com/docs/node/install
2
const twilio = require("twilio"); // Or, for ESM: import twilio from "twilio";
3

4
// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
5
// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
6
const accountSid = process.env.TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID;
7
const authToken = process.env.TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN;
8
const client = twilio(accountSid, authToken);
9

10
async function createMessage() {
11
  const message = await client.messages.create({
12
    body: "Hello there!",
13
    from: "whatsapp:+14155238886",
14
    to: "whatsapp:+15005550006",
15
  });
16

17
  console.log(message.body);
18
}
19

20
createMessage();

1
{
2
  "account_sid": "ACaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
3
  "api_version": "2010-04-01",
4
  "body": "Hello there!",
5
  "date_created": "Thu, 24 Aug 2023 05:01:45 +0000",
6
  "date_sent": "Thu, 24 Aug 2023 05:01:45 +0000",
7
  "date_updated": "Thu, 24 Aug 2023 05:01:45 +0000",
8
  "direction": "outbound-api",
9
  "error_code": null,
10
  "error_message": null,
11
  "from": "whatsapp:+14155238886",
12
  "num_media": "0",
13
  "num_segments": "1",
14
  "price": null,
15
  "price_unit": null,
16
  "messaging_service_sid": "MGaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
17
  "sid": "SMaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
18
  "status": "queued",
19
  "subresource_uris": {
20
    "media": "/2010-04-01/Accounts/ACaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/Messages/SMaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/Media.json"
21
  },
22
  "tags": {
23
    "campaign_name": "Spring Sale 2022",
24
    "message_type": "cart_abandoned"
25
  },
26
  "to": "whatsapp:+15005550006",
27
  "uri": "/2010-04-01/Accounts/ACaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/Messages/SMaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.json"
28
}

Once your Twilio number is connected to WhatsApp, you have many options.

• Check out the API Reference to see examples of sending messages with the Twilio API for WhatsApp
• Learn how to send and receive media messages
• Complete a Twilio API for WhatsApp Quickstart in the language of your choice to get started quickly

In order to register a phone number with WhatsApp, WhatsApp sends a pin code to the phone number to verify ownership. In situations where the phone number cannot receive SMS messages, Twilio may need to receive the pin code from an automated voice call from WhatsApp. This can happen when a Twilio phone number is not SMS-capable, or when WhatsApp is having trouble delivering SMS pin codes to the phone number. To receive a pin code via voice, Twilio may temporarily disable the phone number's webhook URL used for incoming calls. This process typically takes 5-15 minutes, and Twilio will revert the change to the previous URL. However, during this time, all calls to the number will be routed away from your system so that our team can intercept the pin code from WhatsApp.

If your WhatsApp sender ever goes offline after it is initially registered, the pin code verification process will need to be completed again.

If you would like us to coordinate with you when registering or re-registering a number on WhatsApp, please let us know by opening a support ticket.