# WhatsApp questions, answered. Find practical answers about business numbers, templates, conversations and billing. Choose a topic below or discuss your WhatsApp setup with our team. [Start for Free](/dashboard/signup?returnTo=%2Fdashboard%2Fw%2Fwhatsapp) [Contact sales](/demo?product=whatsapp&source_page=%2Fwhatsapp-api%2Ffaqs) ## Set up with your agent [Read the agent setup guide](/docs/ai/set-up-your-agent) Copy this prompt into your coding agent: ```text Bird connects customer communications, data and automation. Help me build with Bird using my coding agent. 1. Read https://bird.com/docs/ai/set-up-your-agent.md and follow its setup workflow for this client. Use an existing connected Bird MCP server or signed-in CLI when available. 2. Read the product guide for the task I want to complete and inspect my existing integration. Identify the workspace, available operations and required setup. 3. Help me complete a first example for the product and destination I choose. Follow the operation through to its actual result, explain any uncertainty, and help me choose the next step. First task: Answer my WhatsApp setup question from the linked owner documentation and prepare the relevant next step. Use this Bird page as the starting context: https://bird.com/whatsapp-api/faqs Read its Markdown alternative and linked guides. Keep the first example relevant to this page and the customer outcome I choose. Preserve the supplied campaign context when following Bird signup or sales links. ``` [Read customer stories](/customers) [Explore Enterprise](/enterprise) - [Airwallex](/customers/airwallex) - [Glovo](/customers/glovo) - [Zillow](/customers/zillow) - Uber - [Binance](/customers/binance) - Adobe - Meta - PayPal - Pinterest - Square - [Al Jazeera](/customers/aljazeera) - [Aramex](/customers/aramex) - [Bazaar Technologies](/customers/bazaar) - [ComparaOnline](/customers/compara) - [Emma](/customers/emma) ## Start here ### What can we build with Bird WhatsApp? Connect campaigns, useful notifications and service conversations to your business systems. Use the channel’s supported native experiences, AI assistance and human support to help customers complete a task. ### How do campaigns and customer service work together? A campaign can start a useful conversation. Route the customer’s reply to the right AI assistant or team, keep the original offer and account context available, and help complete the purchase, booking or service request. ### Do we need the WhatsApp Business app or the platform? The app and Business Platform serve different operating needs. Review automation, team access, integrations and the eligible coexistence or migration path for your number. ### How should we budget for WhatsApp? Review Bird’s sending charges and applicable Meta fees using the published country and category rates. Include the operating and integration requirements of your use case. ### Is AI available for WhatsApp conversations? Connect the chosen assistant to approved knowledge, authorized actions and a clear human handoff. Bird AI, Meta Business Agent and MCP developer access are distinct arrangements. ### Should we sign up or talk to sales? Create a workspace to explore a sender, template or integration. Speak to a specialist for provider migration, multiple brands or markets, calling and a coordinated customer journey. ## Marketing ### Is a WhatsApp campaign the same as a group? No. Campaign recipients receive individual messages. A WhatsApp group is a shared conversation whose participants can see the room and other participants’ messages. ### Do marketing messages need a template? Business-initiated marketing uses an approved marketing template and the required customer permission. Approval, audience eligibility and market availability are separate checks. ### Can we personalize a campaign? Use the approved template’s parameters and a supported language. Review missing customer values before sending, and keep the destination consistent with the message. ### Does a read count as a conversion? A read is a messaging observation. Record purchases, bookings or qualified leads in the system that owns the outcome and join them to the campaign separately. ## Templates ### Does one approved language approve the whole template? No. Review the approval and applied category for the language selected by the send. Other languages can have different verdicts. ### What happens when a customer’s language is missing? Your language policy determines the result. A required recipient language must be supplied; permitted fallback can resolve through an approved base language or configured default. Use fail when sending an alternative is inappropriate. ### Can an AI agent or MCP client create templates? MCP is a way for an authorized tool or agent to manage Bird resources. Template creation still follows the same ownership, review and Meta approval requirements. ### Are templates only for marketing? No. WhatsApp uses distinct categories including marketing, utility and authentication. Choose the category that matches the message’s actual purpose. ## API ### Does an accepted request mean the message was delivered? No. API admission, Meta acceptance, delivery and reads are distinct observations. Confirm the relevant message state and the business outcome separately. ### Can I send free-form messages at any time? Free-form replies depend on the customer-service window and the supported content type. Outside that window, use an eligible approved template. ### Is there a WhatsApp batch endpoint? The published message API sends individual messages. Pace application fanout using the documented limits; do not assume an email broadcast endpoint also sends WhatsApp. ### How do I match an interactive reply to my application? Use explicit reply identifiers with your stored conversation or task state. A quoted-message reference can help when available, but outgoing metadata is not automatically inherited by the reply. ## Numbers ### Can a workspace hold more than one WhatsApp Business Account? Yes. A workspace can contain several WhatsApp Business Accounts, and each can contain several phone numbers. A connected account has a specific organization, workspace and regional owner. ### Can I keep using the WhatsApp Business app? Review whether your number and account qualify for the supported coexistence path. Do not assume every app number must be deleted or that every account is eligible. ### Is business verification the same as an Official Business Account? No. These are distinct Meta processes with different purposes and eligibility. Completing one does not automatically grant the other. ### Can Bird help with a provider migration? Use a specialist-led plan for existing accounts, multiple numbers or a coordinated cutover. Review access, templates, routing, reporting and rollback before changing customer traffic. ## Conversations ### Does a customer reply open a service window? Eligible incoming customer messages establish the service window used for free-form replies. Follow the documented window calculation and use an approved template when required. ### Can customers ask for a person? Build a clear escalation path with a receiving team, context and an understandable next step. Human assistance should remain accessible when automation cannot resolve the request. ### Does marking a message read cost another send? Bird’s read acknowledgement updates a received message and is not a billable outbound message. Typing and read state have distinct behavior. ### Do reactions arrive as events? Bird exposes WhatsApp reaction events. Handle the reaction in the context of the referenced message rather than treating it as a new textual answer to every workflow. ## AI agents ### Is Meta Business Agent the same as Bird AI? No. Meta Business Agent is Meta’s runtime connected to an eligible business number. Bird AI assistance is a distinct operating model; evaluate the knowledge, actions and handoff of the chosen setup. ### Is MCP a customer-facing WhatsApp chatbot? MCP lets an authorized agent or tool work with Bird resources. That developer integration does not by itself create a customer-facing assistant or define its behavior. ### Can an agent change an order or booking? Connect an authorized action to the system that owns the order or booking. Apply identity checks and customer confirmation where needed, then communicate the recorded result. ### How do we judge whether an AI agent works? Review task completion, accurate answers, failed actions and the quality of handoff. Include difficult and ambiguous requests in the evaluation. ## Flows ### Is a WhatsApp Flow the same as a Bird automation journey? No. A WhatsApp Flow is a native structured experience inside the chat. A Bird journey coordinates a wider process and can connect the form result to other actions or channels. ### Can a Flow book an appointment? Use current availability and submit the selected slot to your booking system. Show a confirmed appointment only after that system accepts it. ### What should happen when an option becomes unavailable? Explain the change, preserve the relevant answers and offer a valid alternative or a human handoff. ### Should we use a Flow for every conversation? Use a form when a structured set of choices makes the task easier. Keep simple questions and nuanced service requests conversational. ## Commerce ### Can every customer pay inside WhatsApp? Payment options vary by market, provider and business eligibility. Design the appropriate supported experience and keep a useful hosted-checkout path where needed. ### Does a product click count as a purchase? No. A click indicates interest. Record the order or successful payment in the system responsible for the transaction. ### Can AI help customers choose a product? Use approved product knowledge and current availability. Keep recommendations relevant and allow a person to take over when the customer needs specialist advice. ### What owns refunds and order changes? Your commerce and payment systems remain responsible for those actions. The conversation should reflect their confirmed result. ## Calling ### Is WhatsApp calling the same as calling a phone number? No. WhatsApp Business Calling uses WhatsApp’s calling experience and eligibility rules. Telephone voice uses a different route and contract. WhatsApp calls must not be bridged to the public telephone network. ### Can we call every customer who opted into messages? Do not treat messaging permission as universal calling permission. Follow the applicable business-calling consent and eligibility requirements. ### Can an AI voice assistant answer? Connect the supported voice runtime with approved knowledge, authorized actions and a human transfer path. Evaluate the actual calling setup and market before launch. ### What should happen after a missed call? Offer a clear next step, such as a message, callback request or support route. Keep the task context and respect the customer’s communication preferences. ## Groups ### Can any WhatsApp number create business groups? The business-group journey requires an eligible sender and applicable Meta group access. Review the connected Official Business Account number and current eligibility. ### Are groups suitable for a marketing audience? A campaign generally sends private messages to individual recipients. Use a group when shared participant visibility is intentional and appropriate. ### Does one read mean the whole group read the message? No. Delivery or read updates can apply to individual participants. Keep message counts and participant delivery or read counts separate. ### How is a group send charged? Bird’s outbound message charge and applicable Meta recipient-level fees have different units. Consult the published pricing and billing records for the actual send. ## Analytics ### Why might a read appear without a delivered status? Provider observations can arrive in different shapes or orders. Preserve the separate read timestamp and documented message-state behavior rather than inventing a missing delivery event. ### Which record should we use for financial reconciliation? Use the billing ledger as the financial authority. Message cost fields are useful projections and can be incomplete while processing catches up. ### Does a missing cost mean the message was free? No. Unknown or unresolved cost is distinct from an explicit zero. Reconcile the applicable charges before drawing a conclusion. ### Can WhatsApp metrics prove campaign revenue by themselves? No. Join the conversation or campaign to a confirmed business event using an appropriate identity and attribution model. ## Click-to-WhatsApp ads ### Is a click-to-WhatsApp ad the same as a WhatsApp campaign? No. An ad brings a customer into a conversation from an advertising placement. A WhatsApp campaign sends eligible messages to an audience that already has the required permission. ### Can we measure purchases after the conversation? Join the conversation and available ad source to a confirmed order or payment event. Define the attribution window and deduplication rules for that integration. ### Does every inbound API message include an ad click ID? Do not assume that. Preserve referral data when the connected ad integration provides it and follow the published fields of the actual integration. ### Should an AI agent greet every ad visitor? Use AI when it can answer the expected request and complete a useful next step. Keep a clear human route for complex or ambiguous enquiries. ## Events ### What events does a WhatsApp message emit? Follow accepted, sent, delivered, read, failed and rejected observations for outbound messages, and received events for inbound messages. Reactions have their own event and change log. ### Is a read receipt the same as a delivery event? No. Read is a separate observation and timestamp. An individual message can have a read observation without a delivered event; preserve the documented state instead of inventing that event. ### What is the difference between failed and rejected? Rejected means Bird stopped the message before dispatch without charging it. Failed can describe a processing or provider delivery failure; inspect the recorded cause before deciding whether another attempt is appropriate. ### How do I consume WhatsApp events? Subscribe to the relevant webhook types or read a message’s event timeline through the published API. Keep unfamiliar event types for investigation and verify webhook authenticity before acting on them. ## Limits ### How should an application pace WhatsApp sends? Use the documented API rate-limit response and a bounded queue. Review the sender’s Meta throughput and the portfolio’s messaging allowance separately from the Bird API limit. ### Can a campaign ignore sender or recipient limits? No. A campaign must respect the current sender, portfolio, template and recipient rules. Treat a provider restriction according to its actual cause instead of repeatedly resending the same message. ### Can I send images, video or documents? Use the supported free-form content types inside the service window, or the appropriate approved template format. Review the published media shape and the selected template’s parameters. ## Costs ### When is a WhatsApp message charged? Bird charges its outbound component during processing. The applicable Meta component can be recorded from delivered or read callbacks. Use billing records for reconciliation and keep unresolved cost distinct from zero. ### What is authentication-international pricing? Meta applies a distinct rate under its country, business-location, eligibility and start-time rules. Review the current authentication-international guidance and the published rate for the destination. ### How do managed sender charges differ from our own account? Managed authentication senders use Bird’s account context. Your own connected account has its own business-location and eligibility context; compare the published rate for the actual route and category. ### Where do I see what we spent? Use the dashboard’s Usage and Spend views and the billing ledger. Message cost fields help investigate individual sends but can be incomplete while charge projections catch up. ## Access and data ### How do I verify a webhook came from Bird? Follow the published webhook signature-verification procedure with the endpoint’s secret. Verify the original payload before acting on it, and use the documented rotation process when changing the secret. ### What can a WhatsApp API key do? A key can perform the operations granted by its scopes and workspace context. Give each integration the access it needs and review the separate permissions required for sender and account management. ### Where should we review data handling? Review the configured Bird region, WhatsApp provider processing and the business systems receiving messages. Evaluate the complete customer-data journey rather than treating channel encryption as a guarantee about every downstream system. ### How should an AI agent access customer information? Use verified identity, authorized retrieval and scoped actions. Keep sensitive data out of unnecessary prompts, public URLs and shared groups, and preserve a human path for exceptional requests. ## Setup ### Can I try WhatsApp before connecting my own number? Bird-managed senders and the managed template catalog support an initial eligible send. Connect your own business number for your business identity, inbound conversations and workspace-authored templates. ### What should our first evaluation prove? Test an eligible send, the actual reply, the application action and its confirmed outcome. Include a closed service window, an unexpected response and a request for human help. ### Does Bird track the customer-service window? Yes. A free-form request into a closed window can be refused before admission. If the window expires before dispatch, the admitted message can fail with the recorded service-window error. ### Do inbound messages reach our workspace? Incoming customer messages reach the connected number’s workspace. Shared Bird-managed senders do not provide a private inbound conversation for every workspace using them. ## Turn the answer into a working journey - [Guides and explained answers](/whatsapp-api/resources): Find the practical steps behind each answer. - [WhatsApp platform](/whatsapp-api): Explore the complete customer journey. - [Get started](/whatsapp-api/getting-started): Connect a sender and test a useful exchange. ## Turn the answer into a working conversation. Prepare your account and sender, choose the right message and give the customer a useful next step. [Read the WhatsApp setup guide](/whatsapp-api/getting-started) ## Related resources - [Connecting WhatsApp to Bird: from buying a number to a live channel](/learn/whatsapp/connecting-whatsapp-to-bird) (video) - [Sending WhatsApp messages](/docs/guides/whatsapp/sending-whatsapp) (docs) - [What is the 24-hour customer service window on WhatsApp?](/explained/whatsapp/what-is-the-24-hour-customer-service-window) (answer) - [WhatsApp message builder](/tools/whatsapp-message-builder) (tool) [Get an implementation brief](/learn/workspace?topic=whatsapp)