--- schema_version: "1" id: 3644c1c2e3b7c810c134c0427d9235e61ed7f6c57fac7beed8d47a26d3945bed title: Considerations for WhatsApp Channels collection: admin version: current locale: en-us portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/service/264-0-0/messaging_whatsapp_considerations.md canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.messaging_whatsapp_considerations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 source_site: help.salesforce.com content_type: documentation content_hash: b341f43798c3d9b0ebfd7a9c97eade9dd50e7b51130ac2eb8c7b14479e797006 description: WhatsApp Business lets businesses communicate with users of the WhatsApp messaging app. Review important considerations before creating a WhatsApp channel in Agentforce Service (formerly Service Cloud). products: - Service Cloud - Digital Engagement release: "264" --- # Considerations for WhatsApp Channels WhatsApp Business lets businesses communicate with users of the WhatsApp messaging app. Review important considerations before creating a WhatsApp channel in Agentforce Service (formerly Service Cloud). ### Required Editions
View supported editions.
Checkmark This article applies to: Enhanced WhatsApp channels
X icon This article doesn’t apply to: Enhanced In-App Chat, Enhanced Web Chat v1, Enhanced Web Chat v2, Enhanced Facebook Messenger, Standard and Enhanced SMS, Enhanced Apple Messages for Business, Enhanced LINE, and Bring Your Own Channel
## General Account Limits and Considerations - Meta doesn’t support business-to-business messaging. - You can create multiple enhanced WhatsApp channels in Salesforce, each linked to a different WhatsApp number. For example, if you want each rep on your team to have their own dedicated WhatsApp number, create one channel for each rep's number. - Group WhatsApp chats aren't supported in enhanced WhatsApp channels. If a messaging user adds another WhatsApp user to a messaging session with your business, their messages aren't delivered and the session doesn't appear in the Omni-Channel utility or sidebar. - Meta occasionally delays the delivery of messages that they consider damaging to their messaging ecosystem – for example, when a business tries to send a message to a customer who has not replied to a previous message from the business within a specified time frame. If you encounter this error, don’t immediately attempt to resend the message. Retry sending the message after progressively longer intervals until it is successfully delivered. - Depending on how the Meta API processes messages, inbound or outbound messages sent in quick succession may not be delivered in the intended order. This may happen if the messages are sent by a bot or with a poor network connection or carrier issues; it can also occur if the messages and attachments have different sizes. - Due to Meta’s rules and regulations, some messages that you send might not be delivered to your customers. For example, a message isn’t delivered if the customer blocked your phone number, hasn’t been online for 30 days, or is in a restricted or sanctioned country. In certain situations, Meta doesn’t disclose the reason for non-delivery due to privacy and policy reasons. For more information and potential workarounds, see [WhatsApp Cloud API Support](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/support/#message-not-delivered). - Salesforce ensures system integrity by moving messages that cannot be processed after maximum retry attempts to a secure Dead Letter Queue (DLQ) for manual intervention and root-cause analysis. To maintain conversational relevance and performance, any message exceeding a 24-hour processing window will be automatically expired and purged from the queue. ## WhatsApp Business Account Considerations Your Meta Business Account can be associated with multiple WhatsApp Business accounts (WABA). Across all of the WABAs associated with your Meta Business Account, you can use up to 25 WhatsApp phone numbers. This limit may differ if WhatsApp considers one of your numbers a verified Official Business Account, which is a label reserved for notable brands. And if you maintain WhatsApp channels with another business service provider in addition to Salesforce, those channels also count against your limit. Here’s how to increase your phone number limit: - Once your Meta Business Manager (Business Portfolio) is verified by Meta, your phone number limit automatically increases from 2 to 25 associated phone numbers. - If your initial 25 phone numbers receive a good quality rating from Meta (based on traffic volume and content quality), open a case with Salesforce Customer Support to increase your limit. Support then works with Meta to increase your limit up to 120 phone numbers per WABA. Other considerations for WABAs: - There is no limit to the number of WABAs that you can associate with an org. However, we don’t support associating a single WABA with more than one Salesforce org. A sandbox and a production org are considered two separate orgs. - In enhanced WhatsApp channels, you can create and use up to 250 messaging templates per WABA. If you’re using enhanced WhatsApp channels and manage your own WABA in Meta Business Manager, request a change to this limit by contacting [WhatsApp Direct Support](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/contact-support). Select **Ask a question**, select the topic **WABiz: Account & WABA**, and select **Request type: Increase phone number limit**. ## Message Credits If you have the Agentforce Contact Center Digital add-on, you must purchase message credits to create a WhatsApp channel. During channel creation, we'll let you know if they're missing. Message credits determine the quantity and nature of messages that your business can send, and allow you to access the full WhatsApp feature set. They appear in Digital Wallet under the [Salesforce Message Credits - WhatsApp card](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.service_cloud_billable_usage_types.htm&type=5&language=en_US). ## Message Recipient Limits For each new WhatsApp channel, WhatsApp limits the number of unique users that your org can send outbound messages to in a 24-hour period, using WhatsApp-approved templates. This limit doesn’t apply to the number of messages you send or to responses to user-initiated messages. See [Capacity and Messaging Limits](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/api/rate-limits/) in the WhatsApp documentation. ## WhatsApp Pay - Salesforce isn't liable for any payment failures. In case of a payment failure, Meta recommends that you contact the payment provider to resolve the issue. - Brazil doesn't receive any payment status from Meta. You will receive confirmation or failure status from the payment gateway. You can populate these details in a custom Salesforce object. ## Content Sharing You can send many types of content in WhatsApp channels. WhatsApp has these limitations related to sharing content. - The following content types and interactions aren’t supported: Locations, contacts, polls, and message deletion. - If a customer sends unsupported content such as a poll or location, an error message notifies service reps that the customer sent a message with unsupported content. Service reps can ask the customer to share the information another way. - When a customer sends an image, the service rep sees a preview in the Service Console and can download the image. File previews aren’t supported, but reps can download files. ## Tap-Back Reactions and Message Replies When a customer reacts to a message with a tap-back emoji, or replies to a specific message, service reps see that context in the Service Console conversation. Whether the original message appears depends on how recently the customer sent it. | Customer action | Within 48 hours | After 48 hours | | --- | --- | --- | | Tap-back reaction (emoji) | The service rep sees the original message with the reaction. | The service rep sees only the reaction, not the original message. | | Reply to a specific message | The service rep sees the reply with the original message. | The service rep sees only the reply message, not the original message. | ![Note](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-service-support_channels-264-0-0-production-enus/f3c4b3d2-ff86-4f7c-9fe2-3d8b23d35109/images/icon_note.png) Note Service reps can't send tap-back reactions or reply to a specific customer message. ## Sharing Your WhatsApp Channel To encourage customers to contact you in WhatsApp, you can link to your enhanced WhatsApp channel from a website. Use the [universal link format](https://faq.whatsapp.com/425247423114725/?locale=en_US&cms_platform=iphone). Here’s an example link that includes custom link text: `https://wa.me/15551234567?text=Message%20us%20in%WhatsApp`. ## Customer Care Window The 24 hours after a customer sends a message to your business is considered the _customer care window_, in which a service rep or bot assists the customer with their inquiry. After the customer care window passes, a service rep can respond to a customer only using pre-approved templates. Any messaging other than these templates must be sent within the customer care window. WhatsApp imposes this response time limit to prevent outbound marketing. ## Pricing You can send some types of WhatsApp messages to customers at no charge, while other types incur charges. If you have the Agentforce Contact Center Digital add-on, your WhatsApp billing model is based on message credits in Digital Wallet. Talk to your Salesforce account executive to understand when you’ll be charged for sending a message in WhatsApp. ## Business Verification Some businesses can verify their business in WhatsApp, which gives them access to extra technologies, developer features, and higher limits. We recommend verifying your business before you create a WhatsApp account in Salesforce. See the [Meta documentation](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2058515294227817?id=180505742745347). ## Customer-Initiated Versus Proactive Messaging Businesses can interact with their customers over enhanced WhatsApp in two ways: - Customer Care Interactions: Customer-initiated conversations that require a response from your team within 24 hours - Notifications: Business-initiated, preapproved, templated messages that can be sent at any time by service reps or automation (such as flows or processes) WhatsApp requires you to proactively and explicitly receive an end user’s consent before sending them notifications. You must receive this consent outside of WhatsApp. You can receive it from another communication channel, such as email or text message, or as part of your company’s normal business processes. After you receive an end user’s consent outside of WhatsApp, you can use this information to send notifications. See [WhatsApp Business Policy](https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/business-policy/). End users don’t have to provide advance, explicit consent to initiate an inbound customer care interaction. To learn more about how customers opt in and out of communication, see [Customize the Messaging Opt-In and Opt-Out Experience](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.messaging_consent_status.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "With the help of consent keywords, your customers tell you when and whether you can message them on a particular Messaging channel in Agentforce Service (formerly Service Cloud)."). ## Acquiring a Phone Number for Your WhatsApp Channel To create a WhatsApp channel in Salesforce, you need a phone number to associate with your channel. Your phone number must meet these requirements. - Owned by you. - Has a valid country code and area code (fixed-line or mobile). You can’t use SMS short codes with WhatsApp, but you can use toll-free numbers. - Able to receive text messages, voice calls, or both. - Fits the criteria below for number reuse. The phone number you use acts as an identifier for your WhatsApp Messaging channel. Registering a number with WhatsApp doesn’t limit your everyday usage behavior. You can still use it for standard business purposes like calling or texting. While you can use the same number for communication in multiple countries, we recommend designating a separate number for each country to avoid confusion or the appearance of fraud. If you don’t have a phone number that meets these criteria, you can request one from your telephony provider or web-based CPaaS provider. ## Number Reuse and Migration Most types of WhatsApp phone numbers can be associated with an enhanced WhatsApp channel. | Phone Number Type | Available for Use? | | --- | --- | | Numbers in use with another business service provider (BSP) | Yes. When you create your channel, we walk you through migrating your number from your original provider. | | Numbers in use in a Marketing Cloud Engagement WhatsApp channel, or numbers whose WABA is linked to a Marketing Cloud Engagement WhatsApp channel | Yes, if you create your channel using Unified Messaging. If Unified Messaging isn’t used, you must designate separate WABAs for Agentforce Service and Marketing Cloud Engagement channels. See [Migrate to Unified WhatsApp from Marketing Cloud Engagement or Digital Engagement](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.um_migrate_whatsapp.htm&language=en_US). | | Numbers already activated or previously used on WhatsApp | Yes. | | Numbers already activated in an enhanced WhatsApp channel in another Salesforce org (sandbox or production) | Yes. See [Moving Messaging Data Between Sandbox and Production](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.messaging_sandbox_data.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Learn best practices for moving Messaging channels, data, and configurations such as messaging components between sandbox and production orgs. This article applies to sandbox-to-sandbox, sandbox-to-production, and production-to-production moves."). | ![Note](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-service-support_channels-264-0-0-production-enus/f3c4b3d2-ff86-4f7c-9fe2-3d8b23d35109/images/icon_note.png) Note The WhatsApp messaging channel involves integrations with one or more Non-SFDC Applications, including Twilio, Inc. and WhatsApp, as further detailed in the Messaging Notices and Licensing Information Documentation, available [here](https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/documents/legal/misc/messaging-and-livemessage-notices-and-license-information.pdf). By activating the WhatsApp messaging channel, you're affirming that you have the authority to bind your company/organization to any Non-SFDC Application terms and conditions that are set forth in the Messaging Notices and Licensing Information Documentation. Need help with WhatsApp? Review [WhatsApp Business Platform Support Considerations.](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=000679217&type=1&language=en_US) #### See Also - [Trailhead: WhatsApp for Service](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/whatsapp-for-service-cloud) - [Messaging Limits and Considerations](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.livemessage_limitations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Before you get started with Messaging, review key limits and considerations.") - [Considerations for Upgrading to Credits-Based Messaging with Agentforce Contact Center Digital](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.messaging_accd_considerations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "As of February 23, 2026, you can access Messaging via the existing Digital Engagement add-on, or via the new Agentforce Contact Center Digital add-on. Agentforce Contact Center Digital uses a different billing model based on message credits in Digital Wallet.")