How to set up WhatsApp coexistence
Coexistence lets one number run the Business app and the Cloud API at the same time, so your team keeps replying from the handset while the same conversations reach a shared inbox. Here is the setup, and the list of what you give up.
Before you start
- A number already on the WhatsApp Business app
- WhatsApp Business app version 2.24.17 or higher
- Admin access to the Meta Business Account
The steps
- 1
Update the app on the handset
Coexistence requires version 2.24.17 or higher, and the app has to stay installed afterwards. Uninstalling it ends coexistence on that number.
- 2
Start embedded signup and choose coexistence
In your platform, begin the guided connect flow and pick the coexistence route rather than migrating the number. If a platform does not offer this choice here, it does not support coexistence.
- 3
Approve the link on the phone
You confirm the connection from the WhatsApp Business app itself, usually by scanning a code. This is what mirrors messages in both directions.
- 4
Check both directions
Message the number from another phone and confirm it appears in both the app and the shared inbox. Then reply from the handset and confirm that reply appears in the inbox too.
- 5
Tell your team what changed
Nothing about their day changes — they keep replying from the phone. What is new is that someone else can now see and answer the same conversations.
Where this usually goes wrong
-
Expecting the catalogue to work
WhatsApp catalogue, orders and status are unavailable in coexistence. If selling in chat is central, plan a full migration instead.
-
Planning a large campaign
Sending is fixed at 20 messages per second in coexistence, which makes a big time-sensitive broadcast slow.
-
Assuming old chats come across
They do not. The inbox fills from the next message onward.
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