Connect your WhatsApp number

This connects your business WhatsApp number to ViveLead so incoming messages land on the lead’s timeline and your team can reply from the CRM. The clicking takes about two minutes. If you keep your existing number, one step happens on the phone itself and the number turns on by itself a few minutes later.

Before you start

• WhatsApp Business is on the Professional plan and above. Turning on AI auto-replies afterwards is a separate thing and needs the Business plan.
• Have the phone that owns the number with you, with the WhatsApp Business app on it. One step can only be done there.
• Know which Facebook account owns your business. Meta’s window asks you to log in.
• Who connects matters. An admin connecting makes the number a company number that the whole team can use. Anyone else connecting makes it their own number, visible only to them and to admins. If this is the company’s main number, connect it as an admin.
• Know which WhatsApp Business Account you are picking. Connecting a different account later replaces the one connected now, and the conversations and messages stored under the old account are removed with it. If your business has more than one account, settle which one before you start rather than connecting twice. Ask us if you are not sure.

Steps

1. Open Marketing, then Integrations in the left sidebar, and find the WhatsApp card. Click Connect WhatsApp.

2. Answer the question the dialog asks. It asks “Do you already use this number on the WhatsApp app?” and the answer changes the whole flow:

   • I already use this number on WhatsApp (marked Recommended, labelled Shared Number). Your number keeps working on the phone exactly as it does today, and ViveLead shares it. No number change and no downtime. This is the right answer for almost every business.
   • Set up a new WhatsApp number. Only for a number that is not on the WhatsApp app at all.

3. Work through Meta’s window. It is Meta’s own, not ours, so it looks like Facebook rather than ViveLead. You log in, pick or create the business, and pick the number.

   Check the account on this screen before you continue. Whatever you pick here becomes the connected account, and picking a different one later replaces it and removes the conversations held under the old one. This is the screen to slow down on.

   If you chose the shared number option, Meta then offers to import contacts and chat history, and shows a QR code. That import is Meta’s own, between your phone and your WhatsApp Business Account. ViveLead does not receive that history either way, so accepting it does not put old chats in the CRM. Your CRM threads start from the moment the number is connected.

4. Scan that QR code with the WhatsApp Business app on the number’s own phone. This is the step that cannot be skipped or done for you, and it has to happen on the phone that owns the number. Nothing else finishes the connection.

5. Wait for the window to close on its own. You come back to ViveLead and see WhatsApp connected successfully, with the number listed on the card.

6. Check the status on the number. A number that says Finishing setup is normal at this point and is not an error. See below.

“Finishing setup” is normal, and it clears itself

After the QR scan, Meta finishes pairing in the background and tells nobody. ViveLead checks every five minutes and switches the number on as soon as Meta says it is ready.

So a number that reads Finishing setup right after you connect is doing exactly what it should. Leave it, reopen the page in a few minutes, and it will say active. You cannot send from the number until it does, and the send box stays disabled on purpose rather than letting a message fail quietly.

If it still says Finishing setup after fifteen minutes, the QR scan did not complete. Open WhatsApp Business on the phone and finish the connect step there, then check again.

You will never be asked for a 6-digit PIN. If you have set one up on WhatsApp before, you may expect that screen. A shared number does not use it, and there is no PIN step in ViveLead.

What each status means

Next to the status you will also see a quality dot and a sending limit. Both come from Meta and both are blank on a new number, showing as Unknown. That is the normal state for a number Meta has not rated yet, not a problem to fix.

Two things that block sending even when everything looks connected

These sit on your Meta account rather than in ViveLead, and both are easy to miss because the number looks perfectly healthy.

• No payment method on the WhatsApp Business Account. This is the common one. Meta accepts your message, reports no error, and then simply does not deliver it. Add a payment method in business.facebook.com → WhatsApp Manager → Payment settings. If a number shows Can’t send, open it and ViveLead shows Meta’s own explanation and the fix.
• Templates not approved on this account. Templates are tied to the specific WhatsApp Business Account. If you reconnect and Meta creates a new one, approved templates do not come across and have to be submitted again.

What connecting does and does not bring

When the owner replies from the WhatsApp Business app on their phone, that reply appears in the CRM thread too, marked as sent from the phone. It does not mark the chat unread, does not create a lead, and does not trigger automations, because the business has already seen it.

Old conversations from before you connected do not come into ViveLead. The threads start from the moment the number is connected.

If you connect the wrong account

Connecting a different WhatsApp Business Account replaces the previous one, and the conversations and messages stored under the old one are removed with it. If you have more than one account and are not sure which to pick, ask us before connecting rather than connecting twice.

If you see This WhatsApp Business Account is already connected to another workspace, the number is linked to a different ViveLead account. Disconnect it there first, or pick a different account.

Related

• Onboarding and free data migration covers what our team sets up with you on the kickoff call.