Link your WhatsApp number

How it works

Customers message your WhatsApp Business number. AskBrew answers in seconds from the same trained knowledge, tone, and actions as your website chat, including booking a meeting when Cal.com is connected. When a customer asks for a person, the chat moves to your Customer Inbox and the assistant steps back.

You connect your number through your own Meta developer app. Messages are sent with your access token and checked with your app secret, so replies always come from your number.

• Only workspace owners and admins can connect or change WhatsApp.
• One WhatsApp number per workspace.
• WhatsApp chats appear in Conversations and count toward your plan's monthly conversations.
• The assistant reads text messages and taps on its buttons. Photos, voice notes and documents get a polite reply asking the customer to type their question.

Before you start

• A Meta Business portfolio (business.facebook.com) that you are an admin of.
• A phone number for WhatsApp Business that can receive an SMS or voice call. It must not be active on the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business phone app, or you must remove it from the app first.
• About 20 minutes, and your AskBrew dashboard open in another tab.

Prefer we set it up?

Our team can link WhatsApp for you. It's part of Full setup, an optional one-time service paid separately from your plan. In Full setup we set up your whole assistant: we install and train the chat on your website, connect Cal.com booking and Shopify or WooCommerce order lookup, set up voice, and link your WhatsApp number.

For WhatsApp, we create and configure the Meta app with you on a short call, verify your number, connect the webhook, and test replies before handing over. You will need to be an admin of your Meta Business portfolio, because Meta asks the business owner to approve some steps.

To order, open WhatsApp in your dashboard and choose Full setup. Prices and what each setup service includes are on the Pricing page under Done-for-you setup. Shopify-billed stores send a request instead and are not charged through checkout.

1. Create a Meta app with WhatsApp

1. 1Go to developers.facebook.com, open My Apps, and select Create app.
2. 2Choose the use case for connecting with customers through WhatsApp, then select your Business portfolio.
3. 3Finish creating the app. Meta opens WhatsApp, then API Setup.
4. 4To use your real number, select Add phone number under Send and receive messages, enter your business display name, and verify the number with the code Meta sends.

2. Copy your number's IDs

In your Meta app, open WhatsApp, then API Setup. Under the phone number you will use, copy:

• Phone Number ID: a long number. Make sure it belongs to the number customers will message, not the test number, unless you are testing.
• WhatsApp Business Account ID: also a long number. Optional in AskBrew, but useful for support.

3. Create a permanent access token

The temporary token on the API Setup page expires within a day. Create one that doesn't expire:

1. 1Open business.facebook.com, then Settings, then Users, then System users, and select Add. Give it a name and the Admin role.
2. 2Select the new system user, choose Assign assets, and give it Full control of your app and of your WhatsApp account.
3. 3Select Generate token, choose your app, set the expiry to Never, and tick the whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management permissions.
4. 4Copy the token now. Meta shows it only once.

4. Copy your App secret

AskBrew uses the App secret to check that each incoming message really comes from Meta.

1. 1In your Meta app, open App settings, then Basic.
2. 2Next to App secret, select Show, confirm your password, and copy the value.

5. Connect in AskBrew

1. 1In AskBrew, open WhatsApp in the dashboard.
2. 2Paste the Phone Number ID, the WhatsApp Business Account ID, the access token, and the App secret.
3. 3Select Connect WhatsApp. AskBrew checks the number with Meta before saving, then shows your webhook details.

6. Connect Meta's webhook

This step is what lets incoming messages reach AskBrew. Your WhatsApp page in AskBrew shows a Callback URL and Verify token that belong only to your workspace.

1. 1In your Meta app, open WhatsApp, then Configuration.
2. 2Under Webhook, select Edit. Paste the Callback URL and Verify token from AskBrew, then select Verify and save.
3. 3Under Webhook fields, select Manage and subscribe to messages.
4. 4Back in AskBrew, reload the WhatsApp page. Meta verified the webhook URL now shows a check.

7. Send a test message

From a personal phone, send a WhatsApp message to your business number, such as a question your knowledge covers. The reply should arrive within a few seconds, and First message received shows a check on the WhatsApp page. The chat also appears in Conversations.

Assistant replies and handoff

• Assistant replies is on by default. Turn it off to send every new WhatsApp message straight to your Customer Inbox. The customer gets one short message saying your team will reply.
• When a customer asks for a person, AskBrew moves the chat to Customer Inbox, emails the workspace owner, and stops replying in that chat so your team can take over.
• If your assistant hasn't been trained yet, or your plan's monthly conversations are used up, the customer is told the assistant can't answer right now and a request is opened for your team.
• WhatsApp lets a business reply only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Your team can reply from the Customer Inbox inside that window; after it closes, wait for the customer to message again.

What WhatsApp charges

AskBrew doesn't charge extra for WhatsApp beyond your plan. Meta does charge for messages a business sends, billed to your Meta account. Since 1 October 2026 the rules for replies are:

• Every reply counts as one message: an answer, a date list, a time list, a Confirm prompt or a booking confirmation. A booking is typically 4 to 5 messages.
• Each business phone number gets 1,000 free replies a month. They reset monthly and don't roll over.
• From the 1,001st reply, Meta charges per reply at its rate for the customer's country. For example, about 0.14 US cents per reply to India, 0.34 cents to North America, 1.1 cents to Australia, and 2.2 cents to the UK.
• Messages customers send you are always free.
• Without a payment method in Meta Billing Hub, Meta still delivers the free 1,000 but silently stops after that. AskBrew shows a warning on the WhatsApp page when Meta reports a reply it couldn't deliver.

Booking meetings on WhatsApp

When Cal.com is connected under Actions (available on Pro and above), customers can book on WhatsApp. They tap Choose a date to see days with free times, then pick a time from that day, then tap Confirm. Each list works once: after a choice, the earlier list stops working, so nobody can book twice from an old message. To see a different day, the customer just names it.

Troubleshooting

• Meta says the callback URL or verify token couldn't be validated: copy both values again from AskBrew with the Copy buttons. Extra spaces are a common cause.
• Webhook verified but no replies: check that messages is subscribed under Webhook fields, that the app is Live, and that the WhatsApp page shows no warning.
• The WhatsApp page says a message didn't match your App secret: the secret was copied from a different app or was reset. Paste the current one into Replace App secret.
• The WhatsApp page says a reply was not delivered because of a billing problem: you've used the free 1,000 replies this month and Meta has no payment method for your account. Add one in Meta Billing Hub.
• Replies stopped after a few days: the temporary token from the API Setup page expired. Create a permanent System User token (step 3) and connect again.
• Meta rejected the access token: the token expired or lost a permission. Generate a new system user token and connect again.
• You disconnected and connected again: AskBrew creates a new Callback URL and Verify token. Update them in Meta.
• Using an existing WhatsApp Business account that was set up before this app: your app may not be subscribed to it yet. In Meta's Graph API Explorer, send POST /{whatsapp-business-account-id}/subscribed_apps with your system user token.