Connecting WhatsApp to Bird: from buying a number to a live channel

Hey, and welcome back to another video. Today we're going to be connecting WhatsApp to our Bird account. WhatsApp is a great messaging channel for me to start reaching out to my customers, and I'm going to show you all of the steps required to get started. From buying a number to registering it with Meta, to then eventually start using it within the platform. Now, when we log in to our Bird account, we can navigate up to WhatsApp.

Now, one thing that I immediately want to mention, if you make use of our Verify service, it might be that you already see some data on the metrics because you do have the option to use this as a service on one of our predefined numbers.

Without having to register, you can also send out existing templates already. But for now, we want to start registering our own number. So for that, we navigate to the numbers menu and we click new number. Now, this is a starting page for the entire integration process of connecting our new number. First foremost, we have to give it a name. This is mostly for identification purposes for us, and we can change it at a later stage.

So, for me, it's going to be our Aviary Shop support number. Now, there's a few advanced settings that aren't necessarily needed. It's important to note here if you already have a number with WhatsApp two-step verification set up. If not, you can ignore this and we can actually move on.

Now, in a specific case that you don't have a number yet, we can purchase one using the buy a number button. Now, because our shop mostly operates in the Netherlands, I'm going to go and purchase a Dutch number. You'll see a short list, um which is just updated frequently in terms of available numbers. I'm going to click the second number.

Now, one thing that we want to check immediately is if this number has WhatsApp availability. It might be that a number has already been used with WhatsApp previously. The owner decided to stop using it, stopped paying for it, and it became an unavailable number yet, but it might still be registered to a WhatsApp account, or it might be blocked by WhatsApp. So, for that, we have a simple button that we can use.

And we've got a green check that we can see that this number is ready to be used by WhatsApp. Now, we proceed to purchase the number. We get an overview of the cost. So, the cost for this was 86 cents a month, and it's billed on a yearly basis, and we've got the VAT, and I'm going to use my balance to pay for it. And the moment that you've purchased the number, you can see that some action might be needed. So, we're going to check I'm going to double-check. And here we can see that this number can't actually send until ownership paperwork has been accepted. Now, I'm just going to follow these steps myself quickly. Um and once completed, I'll be back.

All right, I'm back. So, the moment that you filled out all of the paperwork, um it goes into a review process, and the moment that the compliance team has reviewed it, you'll get an email confirming that the registration review has been completed. And now you can see that my Dutch number has been put to active. Now, we're going to go back to WhatsApp. I'm going to go back to numbers, and we're going to add that new number.

And now that we have our own number, we can actually select the number that we want to use. And we're going to connect this number. Now, the number is currently going through a verification process with WhatsApp. Um WhatsApp is going to be texting a verification code to this number, and once it's received, we're automatically going to uh validate the number for you. And we can continue this in the background as needed. Now, I'll wait for this to happen, and then oh, it happens on the spot. Um so, we can actually continue to finish the setup.

All right, and now that our number is pre-verified, we can actually complete the setup quite easily. We click the finish setup button, and first step is giving the number a name. We can change that at a later stage. So, we're just going to call it support line. I'm going to continue with WhatsApp. Now, this is going to open up the embedded flow. Um if you haven't signed in to your Facebook account, your Meta account, this will be prompted first. Um, and the steps that we're going to follow are quite straightforward.

So, first of all, we actually have to select the business that we're going to be sharing this to. So, if you don't have a business portfolio yet, you can create it from here. And then the second is actually linking it up to a business account. So, if you don't have a business account that you want to use yet, you can create a new WhatsApp business account, which we're going to be doing for the purposes of this demo.

Now, then we just have to fill out a few more informations. And then this is the stage which is quite important that we have a close look. So, there's a few options that we can choose from in terms of actually connecting a number. And what we need to do is we need to add a new number. We actually need to switch over to the BSP provided number. This makes sure that the number is connected back to our Bird account, ensuring that integration is as smooth as possible. We click next. And once you're at the final stage, we just have to confirm that everything is set up, that we're registering it with the right business, we're using the right business account, and then we just confirm the information.

All right. And just like that, your account is now connected. Um, now there's a few additional things that you can select. We're just going to complete the setup guide. And then back in Bird, we automatically see that the number is now connecting. And once connected, you're ready to start going.

Um, in the next video, we're going to start looking at what we can actually start using the number for. I'm going to be setting some templates, setting up some messages. Um, be sure to uh be there. As always, I want to say thanks for watching. And happy sending.