---
title: "WhatsApp"
description: "Connect your WhatsApp Business number, and your agent answers it."
source: https://hiy.ai/docs/whatsapp
---

# WhatsApp

Connect your WhatsApp Business number, and your agent answers customers who message it. Anything it shouldn't answer lands in your [Inbox](/docs/conversations) for your team.

**Note:** WhatsApp is in test while Meta reviews hiy. It appears under Channels only in workspaces that have it.

## What you need

- A WhatsApp Business account at Meta, or the sign-in to make one during setup.
- A payment method on that account. Meta bills you directly for each reply your agent sends, apart from your hiy plan.
- A published Support Agent that anyone can reach.

## Set it up

Open **Channels**, find **Messaging** and press **Set up**. Only an owner or admin can.

1. **Pick the agent** that answers your WhatsApp.
2. **Choose the number.** For now that is a number that isn't on WhatsApp yet. Keeping your WhatsApp Business app comes next.
3. **Connect with Meta.** Meta's window opens: sign in, pick or create your WhatsApp Business account and number, and approve hiy. Then add a payment method in WhatsApp Manager.
4. **Send a test** from your phone. The setup shows it arriving.
5. **Choose what the agent does**: answer and hand over when unsure, answer only out of your team's hours, or stay off.

## What your customers see

Your agent's first reply says it is an AI assistant for your business; if your agent hands over to your team, it also says writing **person** reaches them. Later replies carry no label. Each answer is one message, with up to two links to your sources. When the agent can't answer, a **Talk to a person** button comes with the reply.

WhatsApp lets a business reply freely for 24 hours after the customer's last message. Your agent only replies inside that window.

**Try this door** under **Manage** shows the reply your agent would send to a question you type. Nothing is sent, and it is free.

## What goes to your Inbox

The agent stays silent and the message waits in your Inbox when:

- the customer writes **person** or presses **Talk to a person**, when your agent hands over (they're told your team has it);
- the agent is **off**, or set to answer only out of hours and your team is in;
- your team already has the conversation;
- one customer reached 20 replies in an hour.

Until replying from hiy arrives, your team can't answer a WhatsApp chat from hiy: call the customer if you need to, then press **Mark done**, and the agent answers that customer's next message again.

## Limits

- The agent reads text only. A photo, voice note or file gets a short reply saying so, unless your team has the conversation: then your team sees that it came.
- A customer who writes **stop** gets no message from you first again.
- Lookups and actions don't run on WhatsApp.
- **Message templates**: hiy asks Meta to approve two short messages for later use (a handover receipt and a "the team replied" note). **Manage** shows Meta's answer; none is sent yet.
- **Disconnect** under **Manage** stops answering the number. The history is kept.