How to connect WhatsApp to your AI worker

Your digital worker only serves real customers once it has somewhere to answer. The main channel is WhatsApp. You connect it by logging in with Meta (the company behind WhatsApp and Facebook), without installing anything and without copying codes.

Before you start

• A worker that serves customers, for example the Sales funnel or Appointments worker. The Principal doesn't serve customers, so the number doesn't go with it. If you don't have one yet, see How to create your first worker.
• A WhatsApp Business number.
• Access to the Facebook account you use to manage the business. If you don't have a business account on Meta yet, you can create one while connecting.
• Recommended: test it first. Talk to your worker in its test chat before opening it to customers.

You keep using WhatsApp Business on your phone

If your number already uses the WhatsApp Business app, you can keep using it on the same number. Your worker answers and you still see the chats on your phone.

• If you reply yourself from the app, the worker goes quiet in that chat. It takes over again after a while with nobody typing (you set that time in the Inbox) or when you hand the chat back.
• While connecting, Meta may ask whether you want to share your chat history. It's optional.

Step by step

1. Open your worker's chat. You can also write "connect my WhatsApp" to the Principal and it gives you the button.
2. Click Connect its WhatsApp.
3. A Meta window opens. Log in with the Facebook account that manages the business.
4. Follow Meta's steps: pick (or create) the business account, pick the WhatsApp number and accept the permissions.
5. When you finish, you're back in Ageentiq. The button changes to Connected with your number.
6. Check the go-live checklist on the worker's profile. If it shows Turn them on, turn it on. From then on, it answers.

You can also connect it from the worker's profile: The basics > Channels > Quick connection with Meta.

If something goes wrong

• You closed the Meta window before finishing. No problem: click Connect its WhatsApp again.
• It says the number already belongs to another worker. A number connects to a single worker. You fix it in Channels: turn off the other worker that has that number.
• Manual connection? If your tech team already has its own app in Meta for Developers, they can also paste the details by hand in Channels. If you don't know what that is, you don't need it.

Several workers, one number

Several workers can answer on the same number. The one that receives the message hands the turn to the right colleague, and the reply goes out from that same number. You don't need to connect another number to the second worker.

Nothing goes out without your OK: Sandbox mode

In the first few days you may want to review every reply before it reaches the customer. That's what Sandbox is for:

• You turn it on in the Inbox, for the whole account or for a single chat.
• With Sandbox on, the worker's replies wait for your approval.
• You approve, edit or reject them before they go out.

Second channel: email

A worker can also serve customers by email, with its own mailbox:

1. Open the worker's profile and go to The basics > Channels.
2. Under Email, click Create mailbox.
3. Enter the address. The most common setup is letting the platform read your mailbox (Gmail, Outlook or another) with an app password. That way emails arrive with a few minutes' delay.
4. Save. From then on, whatever reaches that address is answered by the worker, with the same rules.

For now, the channels to talk to your customers are WhatsApp and email. There's no chat for your website.

When a person is needed

• Ask for help: on the worker's profile (What they say > Ask for help) you decide when it hands the conversation to someone on your team.
• Ask and wait: if it doesn't know something, it can ask a person on your team and wait for the answer instead of making it up. Those questions show up in Inbox > Questions.
• Take over the chat: from the Inbox you can write in any conversation yourself. The worker goes quiet in that chat and takes over again later, or when you click Hand the chat back to the AI.

Next step

With the channel connected, give your worker what it sells: continue with Upload your catalog or menu.