How to move a WhatsApp number to another provider

Before you start

• Admin access to your Meta Business Account
• An export of your current contacts and conversations
• The text of your active templates

The steps

1. 1

   Export everything first

   Message history lives with the platform that received it and does not transfer. Export contacts and conversations from your current provider before you start, not after.

2. 2

   Save your template text

   Which templates carry across depends on how your current provider set the account up. Having the text saved means re-approval is a fifteen-minute job rather than a rewrite.

3. 3

   Check who owns the WABA

   In Meta Business Manager, confirm your business — not the provider or an agency — is the owner with admin access. If it is not, fix that before anything else; it is the one thing that genuinely blocks a move.

4. 4

   Pick a quiet window

   There is a short gap while the number is disconnected from one platform and connected to the other. Do it outside your busiest hours with someone watching.

5. 5

   Connect to the new platform

   Run embedded signup on the new platform against the same WABA and number. Your quality rating and messaging tier belong to the number and come with it.

6. 6

   Resubmit templates and import contacts

   Submit the templates you saved, import the contact CSV, and send a test to your own number before telling the team it is live.

Where this usually goes wrong

• Cancelling the old plan first

  Keep it until the new connection is confirmed working. A gap with no working platform is worse than a week of double billing.

• Assuming history transfers

  No provider can move it. If those conversations matter, export them while you still have access.

• Discovering the agency owns your WABA

  This is the moment people find out. Check ownership early, when you still have leverage.