# Borrow a sender. Then bring your own.

Every WhatsApp message leaves from a business number. Bird operates managed senders you can use on your first day with nothing to provision, and connects a number of your own through Meta's embedded signup when you are ready to send as your own brand.

## Two tiers of sender, one send call.

Numbers are what the Bird WhatsApp API sends from. A number we operate on your behalf carries Bird's managed templates and picks itself from the template's category. A number your workspace connected is yours: it is what free-form content, inbound messages, and templates you authored all require.

## What a connected number reports.

Once your number is live, WhatsApp keeps grading it. Bird re-reads that state roughly hourly, so what you see is a reading with a timestamp rather than a live value.

## A number, as the API reads it.

Scope says which tier the number belongs to, and meta_synced_at is when its state was last read from WhatsApp. A number Bird operates on your behalf carries no rating, limit, throughput, or sync time at all: those belong to a business account you own.

## Connecting one is a dashboard step.

Your own number is connected through Meta's embedded signup, either by bringing a number that is not already active on the WhatsApp consumer or Business app, or by picking one your workspace already holds at Bird. Numbers are managed in the dashboard rather than provisioned over the public API, and the same step is what makes inbound yours.

## Go deeper in the docs.

Read phone number setup for both connection paths and what to do when one fails, and the customer service window for why a number of your own is what free-form content needs.

## Send today, on your own number tomorrow.

Numbers are one capability of the Bird WhatsApp API: templates, sending, inbound, and analytics ship with them, on infrastructure we have run for a decade.