What you need before connecting WhatsApp

Connecting WhatsApp joins three parties: your business at Meta, the phone number customers write to, and OMAI. Most connections that fail do so because one piece was missing before the process started — the wrong Facebook account, a number that is busy elsewhere, or nobody holding the phone when Meta asks for approval. This page is the list to work through first.

The short checklist

• A full phone number that you are authorized to connect — not a short code.
• A Facebook account that has Admin access to your business at Meta, and its password to hand.
• A Meta Business account for the business, or the willingness to create one during the connect window.
• The phone itself, because the number has to be approved from it or receive a one-time code.
• A decision about whether you keep using WhatsApp on that phone after the connection.

A phone number Meta will accept

It has to be a full phone number with a country code. Short codes cannot be used with WhatsApp Business. The number must also be able to receive a text or a call, because that is how the one-time code arrives on the paths where Meta issues one.

• The number must not be connected to another OMAI account. If it is, the check before Meta’s window stops with This number needs a quick review and routes you to support rather than taking the number over.
• If the number is held by another WhatsApp Business Platform provider, that provider has to release it before it can move. OMAI cannot request the release for you.
• Meta limits how many times a number can request or enter a one-time code in a 72-hour window, so do the verification once, with the phone beside you.
• Meta gives a new business account room for two numbers to begin with; verified accounts can have more.

No number yet? OMAI can rent you a dedicated one and put it on WhatsApp for you — see the ways to get a number and buying a number. That path replaces this checklist: OMAI owns the carrier line and handles the verification call.

A Facebook account with admin access

The connect step opens a window from Meta and you sign in to Facebook there. Meta requires the person connecting to be an Admin on the business account. Sign in with the Facebook account that manages your business — a personal account with no role on the business cannot complete the flow.

The sign-in happens inside Meta’s window, not in OMAI. As the product puts it: You’ll sign in with Meta in a secure window — we never see your password. OMAI never asks for a Facebook password or a WhatsApp verification code anywhere in its own screens.

A Meta Business account

Your WhatsApp Business Account is created underneath a Meta Business account. If your business already has one, have it ready. If it does not, you can create one inside the connect window — brand-new Facebook accounts sometimes have to wait about an hour before Meta lets them create a business.

The phone, in your hand

Every path ends with something happening on a phone, so plan the connection for a moment when you have it.

• If the number is on the WhatsApp Business app, you enter the number in Meta’s window and then scan a code inside the app. The app has to be the WhatsApp Business app (free, version 2.24.17 or later); moving from regular WhatsApp to Business happens inside the app and keeps your chats.
• If the number is not on WhatsApp at all, Meta sends a one-time code by text or call, and OMAI sets your WhatsApp display name and secures the number with a two-step verification PIN on your behalf.
• If the number is on the regular WhatsApp app, have the phone that receives WhatsApp for it ready before you start.

Decide whether you keep WhatsApp on the phone

This is the decision that surprises people, so make it before you connect rather than during. What connecting does depends entirely on where the number lives today.

On the path that keeps the number on your phone, a few WhatsApp features stop working for that number: disappearing messages, view once, live location and broadcast lists. Group chats and calls stay only in the Business app. Keeping the number on your phone covers that path in full.

What it costs on Meta’s side

Your OMAI plan covers the assistant. WhatsApp and Meta bill their own messaging fees separately, to a card you add in WhatsApp Manager. Meta also starts new accounts at lower messaging limits, which rise as it verifies your business. See plans and what each one includes for the OMAI side.

What OMAI cannot do for you

• We cannot sign in to Facebook for you. The sign-in and the business selection happen in Meta’s window.
• We cannot decide whether Meta accepts your number. Meta makes the final call on verification, on your display name and on your messaging limits.
• We cannot ask your current provider to release a number that is registered to their app — you have to ask them.
• We cannot keep a number on the regular WhatsApp app. Connecting it moves it off.
• We cannot restore the WhatsApp features that stop working on a connected number.
• We cannot bring in old chats except on the path that keeps the number on your phone, and there only if you approve the sharing on the phone.
• We cannot approve the connection from your phone. That step is yours.

What happens the moment you connect

The assistant starts answering as soon as the number is connected. There is no separate “go live” button that turns answering on: OMAI finishes the setup for you and the dashboard’s Your assistant card moves to Live by itself, usually within a few seconds of the connection completing.

So before you connect, make sure your business information is in place and that you are happy with how the assistant sounds. Test the assistant first, and know where the pause controls are.