Whatsapp is a messaging service built by Meta. Its an alternative to standard SMS sent over cellular networks.

WhatsApp is appealing to businesses because it has a large global user base, and in many regions its far more popular than standard SMS.

WhatsApp is better at weeding out spam than cell carriers. Their anti-spam policies prevent customer's inboxes from being inundated with messages they don't want from contacts they've never heard of -- in short, it cleans things up for the customer so that your business's marketing efforts are more likely to be seen.

WhatsApp can be found in the app store and when the 'Activate' button is clicked the user is redirected to the phone number page where the setup is located.

Step 1 is to set up an active phone number. Choose which country you want your number from.

When provisioning a phone number the you'll need to provide some regulatory information. This process is to help separate out the spammers from the real businesses like yours.

Some countries have less strict regulatory needs. For these countries, we show only our form for filling in the business address.

The majority of countries require a full set of regulatory info is submitted. That is done via an embedded form that our telco provider, Twilio, has provided.

The form has multiple steps and after submissions, it goes through a review process. When the review succeeds, your number is provisioned.

Here are the different phases you'll potentially see as you submit your information.

When the phone number is properly setup, a section to connect Meta will display below.

In the meantime, if your business has just been created in WhatsApp, make sure to verify it from Meta by clicking Settings > WhatsApp accounts > Start Verification.

From Studio Setup> Phone number, click Connect Meta and follow the prompts.

If needed, this Meta doc offers explanations of each page.

Once you've connected to meta, the in Momence you'll see this blue 'pending' message under the Whatsapp section.

After a successful verification from Meta, you can now use WhatsApp.

A What'sApp tab will now appear in both your Inbox and Marketing Templates.

Note: marketing templates must be approved by Meta before they can be sent. Later on, when you've sent an approved template, if a customer responds, you'll have 24 hours to have a free form dialogue with that customer.

Create your first template from > Marketing > Marketing Templates > WhatsApp > New Template.

In the Inbox, it will appear here as selectable tab, allowing you to load these pre-approved templates and fire them off.

After sending off a template to a group, if a customer responds you'll see this free form mode for that customer, indicated by a green 'Two-Way Communication Mode' tag.

A blue tag will also indicate how much time is left in that initial 24 hour period to interact with the customer, and as the time gets closer to zero the tag will turn red.

In Momence, click Marketing > Marketing Templates > WhatsApp > New Template.

Marketing templates must be approved by Meta before they can be sent.

Meta provides these guidelines to avoid rejection.

A message template's status can change automatically from ACTIVE to PAUSED or DISABLED based on customer feedback and engagement. For this reason, Meta recommends recommends monitoring status changes and, if needed, update the template or engagement experience with customers after the initial response.

It's a strategy to protect users from spam, encourage timely and quality customer support, and align with privacy regulations.

This rule ensures conversations are meaningful, as the 24-hour window starts when a user first messages a business, and after that, the business can only send pre-approved template messages unless the user initiates another conversation.