Connect WhatsApp Business (Coexistence)

Normally, putting a WhatsApp number on the official Business Platform means the WhatsApp Business App on your phone stops working for that number. Coexistence is Meta’s newer mode that skips that trade-off: your number stays live in the app on your phone and connects to Exabloom at the same time.

Every customer message lands in both places. Replies you type on your phone mirror into Exabloom’s Inbox so the thread is never split, and replies your team (or a workflow) sends from Exabloom go out on the same number. To the customer it’s one seamless conversation.

The same Whatsapp Business card supports two connection types, and the badge on the card tells you which one you have:

• Coexistence (emerald badge) — this guide. You keep using the WhatsApp Business App day to day; Exabloom joins the same number.
• API (violet badge) — a full WhatsApp Business Platform migration. The number moves entirely to the platform and the phone app stops working for it. In exchange you get platform-only controls in Exabloom: set the profile photo, submit a business display name for Meta review, and template analytics.

Pick Coexistence if the phone app is part of how you work — you want to keep replying on the go while your team covers the rest. Pick the API if the number is (or can become) a dedicated business line that nobody needs to use from a phone. Coexistence also asks a little upkeep of you: the app must be opened regularly to keep the link alive (more in Keep the connection healthy).

Run down this list first — it prevents almost every failed connection:

• The WhatsApp Business App, not regular WhatsApp. The green-badge business app must be installed on your phone with the number registered in it. The consumer app can’t connect.
• At least 7 days of real activity. Meta blocks brand-new or barely-used numbers. The number should have been actively messaging real contacts on the app for a week or more.
• A Facebook account with full access to your business portfolio — you’ll log in with it during the flow. It does not need to be verified to connect; verification raises your messaging limits later. See Create your Meta Business Portfolio.
• The number isn’t registered to another WABA. If it was previously on the API — with you or another provider — it must be released first (see Fix connection errors).
• You’re not in Nigeria or South Africa. Meta hasn’t enabled Coexistence there — use the API option instead.

Also know what you’re trading away on the phone. Meta switches off a handful of app features the moment Coexistence activates — this is enforced by WhatsApp, not Exabloom:

The whole flow takes about five minutes: start it in Exabloom, approve it in Meta’s popup, then finish on your phone. Keep your phone next to your computer.

1 · Start in Exabloom

Go to Settings → Communication → Social Channels and find the Whatsapp Business card. Click Connect.

The Connect WhatsApp Business App (Beta) dialog opens with the pre-flight notes you’ve just read above. Click Connect With Facebook.

2 · Walk Meta’s popup

A Facebook popup takes over — this is Meta’s official signup flow, not Exabloom’s. Work through it in order (the pink highlights in each screenshot mark what to click):

3 · Finish on your phone

In the WhatsApp Business App, a new chat from Facebook Business has appeared automatically. Follow it through:

After scanning, wait — up to about 45 seconds while the handshake completes. Don’t close anything. Then finish the last two screens on your computer:

Exabloom itself then shows Connecting to WhatsApp, followed by Successfully Connected to WhatsApp with your WhatsApp Business Account ID. Click Done — the card now shows the emerald Connected pill, your number, and the Coexistence badge.

Three things start immediately:

Your history syncs in. Because you chose “Share all chats”, roughly the last six months of one-to-one conversations import in the background — both sides of each thread, so your team sees full context. Contacts are created automatically, named with the name each person set on their own WhatsApp profile when they have one. Names from your phone’s address book don’t transfer — expect some contacts to arrive as bare phone numbers you can rename in Exabloom. The import can take a while for busy numbers; let it run.

Phone replies mirror in. From now on, anything you send from the app shows up in the Inbox thread as an outbound message — already marked read, and counted as a reply from your team. A conversation you answered from your phone won’t keep flagging as unanswered for everyone else.

New messages flow both ways. Test it: have a colleague message your business number from their own WhatsApp — it should appear in Inbox within seconds. Reply from Exabloom and confirm it lands on their phone. That’s the whole loop verified.

WhatsApp’s one big rule applies to every platform connection, Coexistence included: when a customer messages you, Meta opens a 24-hour service window. Inside it, you can send anything. After it closes, Exabloom can only re-open the conversation with a pre-approved template message. Each new customer message restarts the clock — your own replies don’t.

Messages sent from your phone are free, as always. Platform messages follow Meta’s pricing:

Building, submitting, and organising templates is its own topic — the WhatsApp message templates guide covers it end to end. From this channel’s card, the Manage Templates button takes you straight there.

Coexistence has one ongoing requirement: the phone must stay active. Meta drops the link if it thinks the app has been abandoned.

• Open the WhatsApp Business App on the primary phone at least once every 14 days. A quick open is enough — make it a habit.
• Linked devices that sit unused for around 30 days get unlinked by Meta — re-scan the QR to relink them.

If Meta does drop the connection, the channel card reverts to its Connect state and outgoing messages start failing with “WhatsApp Business is not connected”. Reconnecting is self-service: run the same connect flow again from Social Channels.

Here’s the part that surprises people: a Coexistence connection can’t be ended from inside Exabloom. Meta only honours a disconnect that starts on the phone. The Disconnect button in the channel’s settings exists — but it opens a dialog that walks you back to the app:

On the phone: Settings → Account → Business Platforms → tap Exabloom and follow the prompts. Within a few minutes the channel card in Exabloom reverts to Connect. If Business Platforms is empty, the phone-side link is already gone.

Two Meta-side errors account for nearly every blocked connection. Both appear inside the Facebook popup, before Exabloom is even involved.

“Your phone number isn’t eligible to connect”

Meta wants proof the number is a real, working business line before it joins the platform: about 7 days of active use on the WhatsApp Business App, messaging real contacts. New numbers, freshly reinstalled apps, and numbers that merely have the app installed all trip this. The fix is patience: use the app normally for a week, then retry the connection. If it still fails, keep messaging daily and retry a few days later — Meta’s eligibility check can lag real usage.

“This number is registered to an existing WhatsApp account”

The number is still attached to an older WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) — yours, or a previous provider’s. Meta enforces one WABA per number, so the old registration must be released:

• Sign in at business.facebook.com with the account that owned the old integration, go to Settings → WhatsApp accounts, and find the WABA holding the number.
• Open its three-dot menu and click Disconnect account. Wait about 3 minutes, then retry the connection in Exabloom.
• If Disconnect account is greyed out, the WABA is still shared with a partner (usually the previous provider). Open the Partner tab → Manage → Remove access, wait up to 10 minutes, and try the disconnect again.

Anything else — no success message after the QR scan, the flow hanging — is usually one of the basics: the wrong phone number or country code, a Facebook account without full portfolio access, or the consumer WhatsApp app instead of WhatsApp Business. Close the popup and restart the flow carefully.

• Phone replies count as answered. A reply sent from the app resolves the conversation for the whole team — no double-handling, but also no pretending you didn’t see it.
• Only the customer re-opens the window. Your replies — from either client — never extend the 24-hour window. If they’ve gone quiet past 24 hours, it’s a template or nothing.
• Groups, calls, and Status never reach Exabloom. Coexistence covers one-to-one messages only. Everything else stays phone-only.
• Contact names come from the customer’s profile. Not from your phone’s address book. Nameless contacts are normal after the history import — rename them as you go.
• No profile controls on Coexistence. Profile photo, display name, catalog, and greeting/away messages are still edited in the app. (The API connection type moves photo and display name into Exabloom.)
• Failed template sends are visible. Payment problems, quality pauses, and out-of-window mistakes all land in Failed messages with the reason attached.
• The Meta Verified badge doesn’t come back on its own. It’s removed at connection — re-verify through your Meta Business Profile if you had one.