WhatsApp groups
A WhatsApp group carries one conversation between your business and a handful of people, in a chat everyone in it can see and reply to. Use one when a thread involves more than two parties: a support case where the customer, an engineer, and an installer need the same thread, a VIP or concierge line for a named account, a cohort running a course or a challenge together, or a delivery where the buyer and the courier talk to you and to each other.
Groups differ from every other WhatsApp send in two ways that decide whether they fit:
- The group is a shared room, not a fan-out. One message reaches everyone in the group and their replies are visible to the group. A campaign to many people who must not see each other is a one-to-one send to each of them, not a group.
- People join themselves, through a link. WhatsApp has no operation that adds a participant to a group, so the only way in is an invite link you send them, and joining is their decision. That makes a group an explicit opt-in, and it also means a group cannot be assembled from a list of numbers you hold.
Groups are small by design: WhatsApp holds each one to 8 participants, so a group is a working room, not a broadcast channel.
Before you create a group
Two things gate group creation: your own access to the workspace, and the number the group is created from.
The Groups page lives at WhatsApp > Groups, and opening it takes the whatsapp_management permission at read level, with whatsapp at read level putting the WhatsApp section in the navigation. Creating a group takes whatsapp_management at write level, so a member who only reads sees the workspace's groups without a Create group button. Users, teams, and roles covers granting both.
WhatsApp then opens groups only to a business number that holds Official Business Account status, so the Business number field lists a number only when both of these are true:
- The number is connected to your workspace, meaning it finished phone number setup and shows as connected on the Numbers page.
- WhatsApp has granted the number Official Business Account status, shown as a verified mark next to the number in the list.
No other number in your workspace can administer a group. Official Business Account status is Meta's decision rather than ours, and it follows from your account's business verification, quality rating, and brand presence.
Create a group
- Open the Groups page and select Create group.
- Pick the Business number that administers the group. The group keeps this number for its whole life, so it cannot be changed later.
- Enter a Group name of up to 128 characters. The name is what invitees see before they join, so name the group for its purpose rather than for an internal reference.
- Add a description of up to 2,048 characters if the purpose needs more than the name carries.
- Select Create group.
The group appears with status Pending. Creation is asynchronous: we record the request, and WhatsApp confirms the group a moment later, which moves it to Active and fills in its invite link. If WhatsApp refuses the request, the group moves to Failed and its detail shows the reason. A failed group is final, so create a new one rather than retrying that one.
Invite people to the group
Open the group from the Groups page and copy Invite link from its Details tab, then send that link to the people you want in the group over whatever channel already reaches them. Anyone holding the link joins without your approval, so treat it as a credential: send it to named people rather than publishing it, and create a separate group per case or customer rather than reusing one link widely.
Before WhatsApp confirms the group, the field reads Not available, which is the pending state rather than an error.
Removing someone is permanent. WhatsApp blocks that person from rejoining, and a new invite link does not lift the block, so with no way to add them back, reaching them again means a new group.
Follow a group
Open a group from the list to see who is in it and what the group looks like on WhatsApp:
- Details: the group ID, business number, participant count, join approval mode, invite link, and creation and update times.
- Participants: everyone who joined, listed by WhatsApp username when they have one and by their business-scoped user ID always. A phone number appears only for a participant who shared it with your business. Your own business number administers the group and is not listed.
- Pins: the messages pinned in the group, with the time each pin expires.
The list page carries the same information across groups: name, status, business number, participant count, and creation date, with search over name and description and a filter by status.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | We sent the create request and WhatsApp has not confirmed the group yet |
| Active | The group exists on WhatsApp and its invite link works |
| Suspended | WhatsApp suspended the group, and messages cannot be sent while it stays suspended |
| Deleted | The group was deleted, and it stays readable so older references to it still resolve |
| Failed | WhatsApp refused the create request, which is terminal |
What WhatsApp limits
WhatsApp owns the limits a group runs under, and it changes them on its own schedule. As of September 2026 its groups documentation sets a group at 8 participants, a business number at 10,000 groups, and a group at 3 pinned messages lasting 1 to 30 days each. One business account administers a group, so another business cannot join yours.
Groups also carry the restrictions WhatsApp puts on group chats. Calling, interactive messages, authentication templates, commerce messages, and disappearing messages are not deliverable to a group, and a group's message history cannot be read back.
Sending to a group
Sending messages to a group is not available in the dashboard yet, and the groups API is not published in the API reference or the SDKs. Creating groups, inviting people to them, and following who joined are what the product offers today.
Next steps
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Phone number setup | Connecting a number of your own and reading its connection status |
| Business verification | What Meta verification unlocks and how to submit your business |
| Business-scoped user IDs | The identifier WhatsApp gives you for a person, and its scope |
| WhatsApp overview | How sending works, the dashboard pages, and every WhatsApp guide |