Before you publish, test from the WhatsApp tab of the inbox's Test
page. Your own number is connected in Channels → WhatsApp, once you
publish (vatio whatsapp prints the link). What that page opens depends on the
environment the inbox shows, picked at the top of its rail: on preview, the
shared preview number and your test phones; on live, your own number.
Before you publish, the link vatio whatsapp prints opens preview.
#Test with the shared preview
You do not need your own Meta account.
- Open Test → WhatsApp. A phone you already verified on another workspace you own is listed under You already verified these numbers: choose Use on preview and it is connected, with no code.
- Otherwise, under Connect your phone, scan the QR code with your phone. WhatsApp opens on the shared preview number with a message already written that carries a 6-character code of letters and digits; send it. With no camera at hand, send that code to the preview number yourself: the page shows both. That message is what proves the phone is yours. Vatio confirms it on WhatsApp right away, and the page updates by itself.
- Write to the agent from that phone, and read the conversation in the inbox's Conversations, on preview. Under each of the agent's replies is what it did: the tools it called and what they returned, and the knowledge it read.
To start over, send /new. The next message begins a new
conversation, signed out, instead of continuing the current one until it has
been quiet for eight hours. It works only on the shared preview number.
To test from more phones, choose Add another number under the list; it shows a new QR code.
A test phone reaches preview, never live: that is your own number.
You can register up to five test phones per workspace. A code lasts 15 minutes and works once; the QR code on the page renews itself. A verified phone can route to only one workspace at a time: sending another workspace's code from it, or choosing Use on … there, moves it to that workspace.
#Connect your business number
For live traffic, open Channels → WhatsApp on live and choose
Connect WhatsApp. Complete Meta's signup in the window that opens.
Publish to live on the Test page publishes through the same checks
as vatio publish; after the first publish,
Published. Next: put it in your app starts the same signup.
A newly connected number is paused: it keeps working exactly as before until you switch Live on, which is what starts replies from your live deployment — publish your agent first. The same page says whether Meta is delivering the number's messages; Verify runs that check again and resubscribes the number. Switching Live off pauses replies; deleting the integration removes the connection. Renew access token reconnects the same number. Delete the integration first to change numbers.
#Who the agent answers
By default the agent answers everyone who writes to your number. To have it
answer only some numbers, while you answer the rest yourself, list them under
The agent answers on the same page, one per line with the country code, or
run vatio whatsapp only +56912345678. Everyone else's messages still arrive
in the inbox; the agent just does not answer them. The
numbers of your Claude Code routines always
count. Empty the list, or run vatio whatsapp everyone, to answer everyone
again.
Set the list before you switch Live on, and the agent never answers anyone else.
#When your client has the number
The number is often your client's, under a Facebook account you do not have. Under Does your client have the number? on the same page, enter their email and choose Invite to connect. They join the workspace as a supervisor and get an email linking to a page where they complete Meta's signup from their own account; the same page renews the access token later. Below the form, the page shows how far each person you invited has got: invite sent, email link opened, connect page reached (which means signed in), in Meta's signup, left it without finishing (and at which step), or connected, with the full history a click away. You get an email once the number is connected. It still arrives paused, and switching Live on, Verify and deleting the integration stay in Channels → WhatsApp. The link under the form opens that page for anyone already on your team, and for nobody else.
The connection flow supports keeping your WhatsApp Business phone app. A reply sent from that app starts human takeover on the conversation; release the chat in the inbox when the agent should resume.
An edit, by the contact or from that app, within WhatsApp's 15 minutes, rewrites the message in place: the inbox marks it Edited and the agent reads the new text from then on. It is not a new message, so the agent does not answer it and it starts no takeover. A message deleted for everyone, by the contact within WhatsApp's two days or from that app, is deleted from Vatio too: it leaves the inbox and the agent's history.
A forwarded message keeps WhatsApp's label: the inbox marks it Forwarded, or Forwarded many times past five forwards. The agent knows the words came from another chat, so it takes them as something the contact is showing it rather than their own request, and does not vouch for what a chain message claims.
A private tool needs the contact signed in. With auth.sign_in_url set, Vatio
sends them a Sign in button that opens your site, and the conversation
carries on once they are back. See On WhatsApp and Instagram.
When a conversation wraps up, Vatio asks the contact how it went: a few seconds after the agent's last message, a question in the agent's own words with three buttons, Good, So-so and Bad. It asks once per conversation, and not if the contact writes again first. The answer lands in the inbox, next to the widget's, and never reaches the agent.
#Send from your backend
Your backend can also write first: it calls
POST /api/server/v1/:slug/messages with a number and a
brief, such as "order #1042 shipped today", or with your own text. If the
person wrote in the last 24 hours, your text goes out as is, or the agent
writes the message from the brief. Otherwise WhatsApp only delivers an approved
template, so send one along and Vatio uses it; create it with
vatio templates create. When the person answers, the
agent has the brief in front of it, and your backend hears about it through a
webhook.