WhatsApp and messaging channels

WhatsApp is part of Cliedesk Pro. You connect your own WhatsApp Business Account (Meta Cloud API). Meta bills its conversation fees to you directly; Cliedesk adds nothing. People with the Manage channels permission (Cliedesk Admins and Owners) set it up in Settings → Channels → Messaging.

WhatsApp messages become normal conversations. Rules, SLAs, routing and the AI agent work on them as on email and chat. Each number gets a row in Settings → Channels → Channel matrix for its product, queue and type.

Connect a number

1. In Meta’s WhatsApp Manager, open API setup and note the Phone number ID and the WhatsApp Business Account ID. Make a permanent access token for a system user, and copy the App secret of your Meta app.
2. In Cliedesk, select Connect account and choose WhatsApp.
3. Enter a Name, the Phone number ID, the WhatsApp Business Account ID, the Phone number customers write to (for example +15551234567), the Access token and the App secret. Leave Verify token empty: Cliedesk makes one.
4. Select Save.
5. In the list, select Copy URL and Copy verify token. Paste both in your Meta app under WhatsApp → Configuration → Webhook, and subscribe to messages and message_template_status_update.

The token and the app secret are kept encrypted and are not shown again. To change one, select Edit and enter the new value. Leave a field empty to keep it.

One Meta app webhook can serve several numbers: connect each number as its own account with the same app secret.

Customers and identity

Cliedesk finds the customer by the WhatsApp number. Meta verifies WhatsApp numbers, so a number that a customer already has in Cliedesk joins the same contact.

The 24-hour window

You can answer with any text for 24 hours after the customer’s last message. The composer shows the time left, for example WhatsApp: 3 h 12 min left. After that, only an approved template can go out. The composer shows WhatsApp window closed: templates only: select Send a template, choose the template, fill in the values and select Send template. You can also reply by email if the customer has an email address. A normal reply on WhatsApp is refused, and nothing is sent.

Templates

In the account row, select Templates.

1. Select Add template. Enter a Name (lowercase letters, digits and underscores), the Language (for example en or en_US), the Category and the Text. Use {{1}}, {{2}} … for values that change, and give a Sample value for each.
2. Optional: in Values from, name where each value comes from, one per line: customer.first_name, order.number, order.tracking_url and the other order tokens. In Send on order status, enter a WooCommerce status such as completed. The template is then sent when an order gets that status, to customers who agreed to WhatsApp messages.
3. Select Save draft, then Submit for review.

The status shows what Meta decided: In review, Active, Rejected (with the reason), Paused or Disabled. It updates on its own. Select Sync statuses to check now, and to see templates you made in Meta.

Rules can send an active template with the action Send a WhatsApp or SMS template. Service notices outside the window use the template set as the notice template.

Continue on WhatsApp

In a chat or email conversation, the composer shows Continue on WhatsApp. The customer gets a card with a link and a QR code. When they send the prefilled message from their phone, it arrives in the same conversation, and their WhatsApp number is linked to the same contact. Each code works once, for 24 hours.

AI per channel

In Settings → Channels → AI per channel, choose for each channel account whether the AI agent and the copilot work there, which agent profile it uses and how much it may do on its own: Shadow (private drafts), Suggest to the team or Live. Select History to see every change and restore an earlier version.