Connect WhatsApp Business

What you'll need

• • A Meta Business Manager account (the same one that owns your Facebook Page is fine).
• • A WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) under that Business Manager.
• • At least one verified phone number on the WABA (this is the number customers will message). The number can't be in active use on the regular WhatsApp consumer app.
• • A System User created under your Business Manager, with the WABA assigned to it, plus a long-lived access token with the whatsapp_business_management and whatsapp_business_messaging permissions.

Step-by-step

1. Open WhatsApp Manager in Meta Business Manager

   Go to business.facebook.com/wa/manage and pick your WABA. If you don't have one yet, click Add WhatsApp account and follow the prompts (verify a phone number, name the WABA, etc.).

2. Copy your Phone Number ID

   In the WhatsApp Manager sidebar, open Phone numbers. Each row has a 15-ish digit number under the column called Phone number ID— copy that. (It's notthe human-readable phone number; it's an internal identifier.)

   You'll also see your WABA IDat the top of the WhatsApp Manager page; copy that too — it's optional in our form but helps support investigate issues fast.

3. Create a System User and grant permissions

   Go to Business Settings → Users → System Users, click Add, and create one (e.g. SetuChat Assistant) with role Admin.

   With the System User selected, click Add Assets, choose WhatsApp Accounts, and assign your WABA. Tick Manage WhatsApp account.

4. Generate an access token

   With the System User still selected, click Generate new token. Pick the SetuChat Meta app (or the app your operator created — see your platform admin), set the token to Never expire if available, and check both:

   • whatsapp_business_management
   • whatsapp_business_messaging

   Copy the token — you'll only see it once.

5. Subscribe your WABA to the SetuChat webhook

   In WhatsApp Manager, under your WABA's Configuration → Webhooks section, set the callback to:

   callback URLcopy

   https://setuchat.ai/api/webhook/meta

   Use the Verify token your platform admin gives you (it's either META_VERIFY_TOKEN or a separate META_WA_VERIFY_TOKEN if they configured one). Subscribe to the messages field.

6. Connect inside SetuChat

   Open setuchat.ai/connect, scroll to the WhatsApp Business section, click Connect WhatsApp Business, and paste the Phone Number ID, System User token, and (optionally) the WABA ID.

   We validate the credentials by hitting the WhatsApp Cloud API and reading your phone number metadata. If anything is off, we surface a specific error so you know what to fix.

7. Send yourself a test message

   From a regular phone, message your WhatsApp business number. Within a few seconds the bot replies in the language you used (Bangla, English, or Banglish). If nothing arrives, check /inbox for the inbound message and ask your platform admin to check the App Runner logs.

How conversations work on WhatsApp

• • 24-hour customer service window. Once a customer messages you, you have 24 hours to reply with free-form text. The bot always replies in seconds, so this is rarely a constraint — but proactive marketing sends outside that window need an approved template (not yet supported by SetuChat).
• • One AI brain.Same knowledge base, same product catalog, same custom persona, same handoff rules as Messenger. We don't ask you to retrain anything.
• • Inbox shows both channels. The Inbox tab labels each conversation with the channel it came in on so your team can spot WhatsApp threads at a glance.
• • Disconnect any time. The Disconnect WhatsApp button on /connect wipes the token and stops auto-replies. KB and message history are preserved.

Troubleshooting

• "wa_credentials_invalid"when connecting → the token doesn't have the right permissions or the Phone Number ID belongs to a WABA the System User isn't assigned to. Re-do steps 3 and 4.
• "wa_phone_number_already_claimed"→ another SetuChat tenant is using the same Phone Number ID. Email support; we'll sort it out.
• The customer messages but the bot doesn't reply → check that your WABA is subscribed to the webhook (step 5) and that Auto-reply is on for your tenant in Settings.