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A tenant can keep its number on the WhatsApp Business app and use the same number with ImpelLabs. The app keeps working on the phone. This is called coexistence. A number object has coexistence set to true when the number is on the app.

What is requested

When a number that is on the WhatsApp Business app connects, ImpelLabs asks Meta for the contacts and for the history of the chats. Meta allows these requests only within 24 hours of the sign-up. The request is made at connection time, so connect the number soon after the tenant finishes the sign-up. The hosted sign-up offers the tenant the choice between a number on the app and a new number. See Setup.

How history arrives

Meta sends the history in chunks. ImpelLabs adds each message to its conversation. A message that is already there is dropped, so the same chat does not appear twice. In the message object:
  • history is true for a message from before the number was connected.
  • role and channel.from or channel.to show who wrote it.

Progress

Each chunk of history sends the event channel.history_synced to your webhook endpoint. The object has phone_number_id, phase and progress. progress is a value from 0 to 100, and 100 is the last chunk of a phase. Use it to show the tenant how far the import is.

Messages typed on the phone

A message that the business types in the WhatsApp Business app goes out from the phone. ImpelLabs reports it as message.sent with source set to business_app. No delivery receipt follows for it. In the conversation list it appears with source set to business_app, and it can pause the agent in that conversation, as any reply by a person does.