WhatsApp Business App Coexistence

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Overview

Coexistence lets you connect a phone number that’s already active in the WhatsApp Business app to your AI agent, without deleting the account or changing numbers. After you connect:

• Your AI agent answers customers on that number.
• You can still read and reply to chats from the WhatsApp Business app on your phone.
• Your recent chat history and contacts are copied into Chatbase.
• When you reply from the app, Chatbase sees the reply and stops the AI for that conversation, so you and the AI don’t talk over each other.

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Before you start

Make sure you have:

• The WhatsApp Business app, version 2.24.17 or later, on the phone that uses the number. Update the app first if needed.
• The phone with you during setup. You confirm the connection from the app.
• A Facebook account that can manage your business on Meta.
• A few minutes. Connecting and importing your history can take several minutes.

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Connect your WhatsApp Business app number

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Importing your chat history and contacts

Right after you connect, Chatbase starts importing from the WhatsApp Business app:

• Chat history: your recent conversations are added to Chat logs, so your AI agent and your team can see what was said before.
• Contacts: your WhatsApp Business app contacts are added to Contacts, and stay in sync when you add or remove them in the app.

You can follow the import on the number’s card in Channels → WhatsApp, on the Connection tab: When the import finishes, the status line disappears from the card and your AI agent starts replying. Photos, videos, and files older than 14 days are not included in the history Meta sends. They appear as a placeholder in Chat logs.

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Replying from the WhatsApp Business app

You can keep replying to customers from the WhatsApp Business app. Chatbase sees each reply and treats it as you stepping into the conversation:

• If you use the Help desk: Chatbase takes over the conversation and opens a ticket with your reply in it. The AI stays off for that customer until the ticket is closed. The customer’s next messages go to the same ticket.
• If you don’t use the Help desk: Chatbase pauses the AI for that conversation. To hand it back to the AI, open the conversation in Chat logs, open its menu, and click Resume conversation.

Replies sent from the app are labeled with your business name and WhatsApp Business App (for example, Acme Co · WhatsApp Business App) in Chat logs and tickets, so you can tell them apart from AI replies.

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Disconnecting

There are two separate ways to disconnect, and they do different things. Remove the number from Chatbase. Open Channels → WhatsApp, go to the Connection tab, click the ⋯ menu on the number, choose Delete Number, then click Delete to confirm. This removes the number from Chatbase and stops your AI agent on it, but the number stays connected to the WhatsApp Business Platform. Disconnect from the WhatsApp Business Platform. In the WhatsApp Business app, go to Settings → Account → Business Platform, tap Chatbase, and confirm that you want to disconnect. Chatbase notices and the number’s card shows Disconnected from WhatsApp. Your AI agent stops replying on that number. If the number is reconnected to the platform later, Chatbase picks it back up.

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Import history again

Meta allows history to be imported once, within 24 hours of connecting. To import it again, disconnect in the WhatsApp Business app (Settings → Account → Business Platform), then go through Connect your WhatsApp Business app number again and share history when asked.

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Limitations

In Chatbase

• Group chats aren’t supported. Your AI agent only works in one-to-one chats, and group chats aren’t imported.
• History is imported once. You can import up to about 6 months of one-to-one chats, once, right after connecting. To import it again, you need to disconnect and connect again.
• Older media isn’t imported. Photos, videos, and files older than 14 days show up as placeholders in Chat logs.
• Replying from the app pauses the AI for that conversation. See Replying from the WhatsApp Business app.

In the WhatsApp Business app Once connected, Meta changes some things in the app:

• Disappearing messages are turned off for one-to-one chats.
• View-once messages and live location can’t be sent.
• Broadcast lists are turned off. You can’t create new ones, and existing ones become read-only.
• Linked devices are logged out during setup. You can link up to 4 again afterwards. WhatsApp for Windows and WhatsApp for Wear OS aren’t supported as linked devices.

Your catalog, labels, quick replies, greeting and away messages, calls, status, and channels keep working in the app. Keeping the connection active

• Open the WhatsApp Business app at least once every 14 days. If you don’t, Meta disconnects the number from the platform and your AI agent stops replying.
• Changing the number, deleting the account, or moving the number to regular WhatsApp also disconnects it.
• If you reinstall the app or move to a new phone, keep the option to reconnect your connected platforms checked when you register again, and the connection comes back on its own.

Pricing Messages you send from the WhatsApp Business app stay free. Messages your AI agent sends are charged at Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform rates. The 24-hour window for free-form replies applies to your AI agent’s messages. Messages you send from the app don’t open or extend it.

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Next steps