WhatsApp connects your organisation's WhatsApp numbers to MaxSuite (module whatsapp). Messages to a connected number arrive in Conversations within seconds, where you and your agents answer them. Here you connect numbers, write the message templates WhatsApp needs, and watch what messages cost.
In the sidebar under Connections → WhatsApp.
The screen has four tabs: Numbers, Templates, Costs and Settings.
Numbers
Each number connected, with how it was connected, its quality and its monthly cap:
- With Facebook or with an access token: official numbers through Meta.
- Personal: a personal WhatsApp linked by QR code. Unofficial and free, but Meta may ban such a number.
Quality is Meta's rating, green, yellow or red, from how people respond to its messages. The monthly cap is the most this number's messages may be estimated to cost in a calendar month (UTC). Nothing is sent without one. Personal numbers cost nothing and have none.
Open a number to see its Display name, Quality, Messaging limit, Business verified, Bad signatures and when it was Checked with Meta. From there:
- Send read receipts: show blue ticks when somebody opens their conversation in Max.
- New access token: paste a new token when Meta refused the old one. It is checked with Meta and sealed.
- Send a test: A short text to a phone that wrote in the last 24 hours, or Test with a template to reach any phone.
- Check with Meta now, Rotate address, Reconnect, Scan again (personal numbers), and Disconnect.
- Conversation settings for this number → opens its settings in Conversations.
Templates
Messages Meta approved for reaching a person outside the 24-hour window. Each language of a template is reviewed by Meta on its own. Templates belong to the number's WhatsApp Business account.
- New template: a Name (lower-case letters, digits and _), a Language code, a Category (Utility for something the person asked for or bought, or Marketing for offers and news, which needs a recorded consent and costs more), an optional Header (text, a document, an image or a video), the Body with Variables, a Footer and Quick-reply buttons. Preview shows it. Save draft keeps it. Nothing goes to Meta yet.
- Submit sends a draft to Meta for review, usually within a day.
- Edit a draft or rejected template. Delete removes one language, at Meta too. It cannot be sent again.
- Add starter templates adds ready drafts in English, French and Arabic.
- Sync with Meta reads statuses and templates made in WhatsApp Manager.
Costs
What this organisation's WhatsApp messages cost, per number and month (UTC, as Meta counts), against each number's cap: Monthly cap, Used, Reserved, Of the cap and Free service messages left (Meta gives 1,000 a month). Broken down By category, By country and by Days. Each finished day is booked once into Costs under "WhatsApp messages". At 80% of the cap the owner is told once a month. Sends that would go past it are refused before Meta is called.
Settings
- Allow personal (QR) numbers: on by default. Off hides Scan a QR code when connecting. Only an administrator of this organisation can change it.
- Connect with Facebook (platform administrators only): the App id, Configuration id and App secret of Meta's Embedded Signup for the whole instance. Check with Meta and save, or Clear. Until set, Connect with Facebook shows as unavailable.
What you can do
Connect a number
- Open WhatsApp and press Connect a number.
- Choose how:
- Connect with Facebook: log in to Facebook and pick your number. Official, and easiest.
- Paste an access token: a system-user token from Meta Business settings, and the app secret. Find my numbers lists the numbers it reaches.
- Scan a QR code: tick I understand, this is a spare number, then on the phone open WhatsApp → Linked devices → Link a device and point it at the code.
- Advanced: enter ids by hand: the WhatsApp Business account id, phone number id, app id, token and app secret, then copy the Webhook address and Verify token into Meta.
- Give it a Label and an Owner: the person who answers for this number. They need permission to reply to conversations.
- Set the Monthly cap (USD). US$50 is proposed.
- Press Connect. Tokens and secrets are sealed and never shown again.
Who can do what
| Permission | Lets you |
|---|---|
whatsapp:read | See WhatsApp numbers, templates and costs. |
whatsapp:manage | Connect numbers, set caps and read receipts, write and submit templates. |
Answering messages needs Conversations permissions. See People, roles and permissions.
What happens on its own
| Job | When | What it does |
|---|---|---|
process | Every minute, and as soon as a message arrives | Hands stored deliveries from WhatsApp to Conversations. |
media | Every minute | Fetches pictures, voice notes and files that came with messages. |
linked | Every minute | Keeps personal numbers linked, and fails replies held more than seven days. |
unknown | Every 15 minutes | Marks sends whose outcome stayed unknown for 24 hours as failed. They are not sent again. |
check | Every day at 03:17 UTC | Reads each number's status from Meta. |
book | Every day at 00:20 UTC | Books each finished day's message costs into Costs, once. |
prune | Every day at 02:50 UTC | Deletes handled deliveries older than 14 days. |
Needs
Nothing has to be switched on first. Messages are answered in Conversations.
What agents can do
Reads run straight away. Connecting a number always asks a person first. Other changes wait for approval by default, and deleting a template counts as destructive. See Agents and approvals.
Read only: whatsapp.numbers, whatsapp.findNumbers, whatsapp.costs, whatsapp.templates
Numbers: whatsapp.connectNumber (always asks), whatsapp.refreshNumber, whatsapp.test, whatsapp.disconnect
Templates: whatsapp.createTemplate, whatsapp.updateTemplate, whatsapp.submitTemplate, whatsapp.removeTemplate, whatsapp.syncTemplates, whatsapp.addStarterTemplates
whatsapp.findNumberslists every number an access token reaches and whether Max already has it.whatsapp.disconnectstops Meta sending the number's messages here and erases its token. Its conversations cannot continue.whatsapp.createTemplatesaves a draft. Nothing goes to Meta untilwhatsapp.submitTemplate.
Over MCP the same tools are named whatsapp__numbers and so on. See API keys and MCP access.