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WhatsApp phone numbers

A WhatsApp message leaves from one of two kinds of number: one Bird operates on your behalf, or one your own workspace owns. Which one you have decides what you can send and whether a send names its sender at all.
The Numbers page lists both. The from field in the send response and the message log identifies the number a given message used.

Bird-managed numbers

Bird's own numbers need no setup, and carry the pre-approved templates whose slugs begin with bird_. Bird selects one by the template's category and your region: authentication templates use a dedicated authentication number, utility templates a notification number. A managed-template send therefore has no from field, and setting one is rejected.
These numbers are Bird's, shared across workspaces, so the sender your recipient sees is Bird's rather than yours, and free-form content cannot go out on them.

Your own number

Rolling out: Connecting your own number is being made available over the coming weeks. When the option appears on the Numbers page of your dashboard, your workspace has it.
Connecting a number of your own is what unlocks sending as your own brand: your own templates, and free-form content inside an open customer service window. Every send from it names the number in from.
You connect it from the Numbers page, in Meta's Embedded Signup popup. There are two ways in, and they differ in who reads the verification code Meta sends the number:
  • I have my own number. You receive Meta's code by SMS or voice call and type it into the Embedded Signup window yourself. The number cannot be active on the WhatsApp consumer or Business app while you connect it, so delete that account first, and set a Phone registration PIN only if the number already carries one on WhatsApp.
  • A number your workspace holds at Bird. Pick it from the same list instead. Bird receives the code and clears Meta's verification for you, so the number arrives pre-verified and you only select it in the Embedded Signup window.
Either path can fail part-way, at Meta's verification or in the popup. The number's row on the Numbers page carries the reason. Recover by disconnecting that number from its row actions and connecting it again: the failed row keeps the number claimed, so a second attempt without removing it is rejected.
Can I send WhatsApp without buying a phone number? walks through the choice.

Inbound messages

Inbound messages reach your workspace on your own numbers only. Bird records them in the WhatsApp log, and the Inbound tab on the Metrics page reports received volume by number. Each one also opens the 24-hour window that free-form content needs. A message a contact sends to a Bird-managed number belongs to no single workspace, since those numbers are shared, so it is not recorded for yours.

Next steps