Set up a WhatsApp Channel

Requirements


Platform	Requirement
Yeastar PBX	Firmware: Version 84.12.0.32 or later Plan: Enterprise Plan (EP) or Ultimate Plan (UP) Domain Name: Due to the limitation of the third-party platform, the domain name must NOT contain underscore character(s), otherwise the messaging channel will encounter authentication failure, or will fail to receive messages. Domain Certificate: A valid domain certificate is installed. Note: If the root domain of your Cloud PBX is NOT the standard Yeastar-provided domains (ycmcloud.com, yeastarcloud.com, or yeastarycm.co.za), you NEED to install a valid domain certificate for the PBX first, otherwise the messaging channel will encounter authentication failure, or will fail to receive messages.
WhatsApp	Product: WhatsApp Business Platform Account: A Meta Developer account Note: You only need one Meta Developer account to create multiple Meta apps for the WhatsApp channel integration. There is no limit to the number of WhatsApp channels on PBX. A Business Manager account Note: After you set up a Business Manager account, verify your business.

Learn about the limitations of WhatsApp messaging channel.


Item	Description
Message type	Supports text messages and multimedia messages, where the multimedia message types are determined by WhatsApp. For more information, see WhatsApp supported media types. Important: When sending multimedia messages (such as images), WhatsApp downloads the file from a link provided by the PBX. Therefore, if you have set Allowed Country/Region IP Access Protection rule, make sure that you have allowed the IP access from the country where the WhatsApp server is located, otherwise the file transmission would fail.
Messaging mechanism	Supports to receive and reply to Inbound messages, but agents can NOT initiate a messaging session with a WhatsApp user.
Message sending rate	Supports to send up to 80 messages per second.
File size	Supports to send a file with a maximum size of 100 MB.
File retention period	Files can be retained for 24 hours.
Session auto closure	A session that has been inactive for more than 24 hours will be closed automatically.

Log in to 'Meta for Developers' portal, then go to My Apps from the top menu.
Create an app of the Business type.
Note: In the Business Account field, select your Business Account to connect the app with your business, as apps that need advanced access for permissions must be connected to a verified business entity.
In the Add products to your app page, scroll down to find WhatsApp and click Set up.
You are redirected to the Quickstart page of the WhatsApp product.
On the left navigation bar, go to API Setup page of the WhatsApp product, and complete the followings:
1. To use your own WhatsApp phone number for messaging, click the From drop-down list in the Select phone numbers section, and click Add phone number to add your phone number for messaging.
2. In the From drop-down list, select the desired phone number, then note down the number and the corresponding Phone number ID as you will need to add them on the PBX later.
  In this example, select the default test number provided by WhatsApp.
3. If you use the test number provided by WhatsApp, you need to specify the recipients' phone number in the To drop-down list, otherwise message sending may fail.
On the left navigation bar, go to App settings > Basic, note down the App secret of the app, as you will need it later on PBX.

At the top-left corner of the 'Meta for Developers' portal, go to App Dashboard > Business settings.
You are redirected to the Business settings page of 'Meta Business Suite' portal.
Go to Users > System users, create a system user and grant app permission to the user.
1. Click Add to create a system user with Admin role.
2. Select the created user, click Add assets and grant the full control permission of the app to the created user.
Go to Accounts > WhatsApp Accounts, add the created user to your WhatsApp Business account and grant the user full control permission.
Go back to Users > System users, generate an access token with the whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management permissions enabled.
Note: By default, the token expires after 60 days. You can set it to Never if you don't want the token to expire.
A window pops up to show the generated access token.
Important: Make sure that you have copied and properly saved the access token before closing the pop-up window, as it is only displayed ONCE.

In the Messaging Settings tab, configure the channel.

Phone Number: Enter the WhatsApp phone number in E.164 format ([+][country code][phone number]). For example, +15550193510.
Phone Number ID: Paste the phone number ID.

Destination for Inbound Messaging: Specify the destination of inbound messages from the number.


Option	Description
Extension	If selected, choose an extension from the Extension drop-down list. Only the extension user can receive inbound messages from the number.
Message Queue	If selected, choose a queue from the Message Queue drop-down list. All the agents in the selected message queue can receive inbound message(s) of new sessions in the queue. However, only the user who picks up a session will be able to receive and respond to the follow-up inbound messages in the session.

Log in to 'Meta for Developers' portal, then go to My Apps from the top menu.
Click the created app to enter the details page.
Go to WhatsApp > Configuration to configure the messaging webhook and subscribe to webhook field, so that PBX can get notified upon receiving WhatsApp messages.
1. Paste the Webhook URL and verify token obtained from the PBX.
2. Subscribe to messages webhook field.

The Status of the WhatsApp channel shows , which indicates that you have successfully created a WhatsApp channel.
PBX automatically tracks and records the number of messages sent and received on the channel, where the Total column displays the total amount of the sent messages, including both successfully sent messages and failed ones.
Tip: You can filter the statistics by a time period using the time filter.

Send text messages to the phone number and see if the specified agent can receive messages on his or her Linkus UC Client.