Is Facebook Business Manager Verification required for WhatsApp Business API?

As of 31st October 2023, WhatsApp APIs no longer requires a business to have their Meta Business Suite (also known as Facebook Business Manager) account verified for increasing your WhatsApp Business API messaging limit. To increase your limit, a business must interact with 1000 unique contacts in a 30 day rolling period.

What has changed?

1. Businesses no longer have to worry about getting their Facebook Business Manager verified to use WhatsApp APIs at its fullest potential.
2. With this new update, a business can increase their messaging limit beyond the previously capped 250 conversations per day for business-initiated conversations. To do so, a business must have high-quality conversations with 1000 unique contacts in a 30 day rolling period.
3. If these conversations are deemed to be high quality, your account automatically upgrades to the Tier-1 messaging limits i.e 1000 business initiated conversations per 24 hours. And you are also eligible to upgrade to higher tiers based on your usage.
4. Once you have been upgraded to Tier-1 status, the limit on the number of WhatsApp Business API phone numbers per Business Manager account also increases from 2 to 20.
5. WhatsApp has now started showcasing the display name of businesses for WhatsApp API accounts. The business does not require to have the Official WhatsApp Business API account (Green Tick verified account) for this. This is available only after you have Tier-1 status.

What are the limitations of not having Facebook Business Manager verified?

WhatsApp has the following limitations, if your business is not verified:

1. You cannot apply for an official Green Tick or Badge for your WhatsApp API number.
2. You can reach out to 250 contacts per 24 hours, initially. This can be upgraded based on your usage.
3. Initially only 2 phone numbers are allowed on WhatsApp Business APIs. This can be upgraded based on your usage.

Apart from this, there is no other limitation to your WhatsApp API.

Note that, you can send unlimited messages to user-initiated conversations within the 24 hour timeframe of the conversation.

What are the benefits?

Most businesses (especially small and medium size business), who are not very active on Facebook and Instagram, face a lot of challenges to get their business verified in the Meta Business Suite. The biggest challenge is to get the “Start verification” button activated.

With this new change, businesses can now setup their WhatsApp APIs instantly without having to consult Social Media experts or Meta support team. Saving them weeks of work.

How to apply to WhatsApp Business API now?

The process to apply for WhatsApp APIs is simple and takes only a few minutes. Make sure you have a phone number (with no existing WhatsApp account) available before you proceed. Below are the steps to follow :

• Visit BotSpace Dashboard and signup with your email.
• Create a new workspace.
• Click on “Add number” as shown below
• Click on “Connect”. This will redirect you to a new page.
• Sign up with your Facebook account and follow the guide.

Make sure your WhatsApp API's display name adheres to WhatsApp's guidelines. Upon completing these steps, your number will be activated on the dashboard.