Connect a WhatsApp business number

WhatsApp calling starts with a business number connected to your Space. SignalWire connects to WhatsApp through your existing Facebook/Meta Business account. Once the connection is made, your WhatsApp business numbers appear in your Space, ready for you to enable voice and attach a Resource to answer.

One connection serves both channels. If you already connected the number for WhatsApp messaging, skip ahead to enabling voice.

Prerequisites

You need a Meta Business Account (Facebook/Meta Business).

Connect your account

Add a WhatsApp connection

In your SignalWire Dashboard, open Integrations and select the WhatsApp tile to start Meta’s embedded signup.

Confirm your numbers

Your WhatsApp Business Account appears under Connected Integrations on the Integrations page. Open it and check the WhatsApp Numbers tab. A number must show Registered before you can use it. Pending means it hasn’t finished registering with Meta: complete its setup in the Meta Business dashboard, then select Sync with Meta to refresh the status.

To add or remove numbers, make the change in the Meta Business dashboard, then open the connection in your SignalWire Dashboard and select Sync with Meta to pull the current numbers and templates into your Space. A number you remove in Meta is removed from your Space on the next sync, along with any routing configured for it. Adding and removing WhatsApp numbers is not available through the SignalWire API.

Verify the connection

These calls need your SignalWire project credentials: your Project ID and an API token with the Numbers scope, both found in your SignalWire Dashboard.

List the WhatsApp numbers in your Space:

GET

/api/messaging/whatsapp/numbers

curl https://{your_space_name}.signalwire.com/api/messaging/whatsapp/numbers \
     -u "<project_id>:<api_token>"

Try it

Response

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
      "business_phone_number_id": "102290129340398",
      "phone_number": "whatsapp:+15557654321",
      "calling_handler_resource_id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
      "messaging_handler_resource_id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
      "business_name": "Acme, Inc.",
      "waba_id": "109876543210987",
      "whatsapp_business_id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
      "voice_enabled": false,
      "voice_capable": false,
      "created_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z",
      "updated_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

A freshly connected number reports voice_enabled and voice_capable as false. The next two guides turn them on in order: enabling voice sets voice_enabled, and attaching a Resource sets voice_capable. See the List WhatsApp numbers reference for the full response schema.

Next steps

Enable voice on the number

Turn on calling for the connected number and confirm it took effect.

Receive WhatsApp calls

Attach a Resource to answer inbound calls, and find them in your logs.