WhatsApp channel

Your AI employee can answer customers on WhatsApp with the same knowledge, settings and checks as on your website: one brain, a door per channel. WhatsApp chats land in the same inbox as website chats, a team member can take one over at any moment, and every WhatsApp chat is a lead (the customer's number is known). WhatsApp runs on Meta's WhatsApp Cloud API; your business pays Meta directly for its messages.

Connect a number

Open the AI employee and go to the WhatsApp tab (/app/agents/{id}/whatsapp). A workspace can connect several numbers; each number answers as one AI employee, chosen under Answers as (choose Nobody to have only your team answer on it).

• Connect with Facebook — log in with Facebook in the popup and pick your WhatsApp number (Meta's Embedded Signup). Choose Keep the WhatsApp Business app to keep using the app on your phone with the same number (Coexistence), or Use a new number for a number that is not in the WhatsApp app. This button appears once Blengi's Meta app is approved (Meta Tech Provider).
• Connect by hand — for a number you set up yourself in Meta's WhatsApp Manager: paste its access token, phone number ID and WhatsApp Business Account ID. Meta checks the token before anything is saved, and Blengi subscribes to the number's messages.

A number can be connected to one Blengi account only. Disconnecting a number stops the AI on it; its chats stay in the inbox.

How the AI answers on WhatsApp

• One answer to several messages. Customers often send a few short messages in a row. The AI waits a few seconds after the last one (Wait for more messages, 2–15 seconds, default 4) and answers them together.
• Read and typing. The customer sees their message marked as read and "typing…" while the answer is made.
• WhatsApp formatting. Short paragraphs, *bold*, plain web addresses; product suggestions arrive as photos with name, price and link (at most three); answer suggestions become reply buttons (up to three, otherwise a list).
• It says it is an AI. The first reply in a chat starts with a line saying the customer is talking to an AI employee, that they can ask for a person, and that STOP stops the AI. You can word that line yourself per number.
• STOP and START. A customer who sends STOP (or STOPPEN, AFMELDEN, ABMELDEN, ARRÊT…) no longer gets AI replies; START turns it back on. Your team can still answer.
• Talk to a person. The person button, or asking for a person, works as on the website: the chat is flagged for the team.
• Photos and voice notes. The AI reads text only. A photo with a caption is answered from the caption; without one the customer is asked to type the question.

When the AI stays silent

• A team member took the chat over, or the customer asked for a person.
• You answered the chat yourself in the WhatsApp Business app (Coexistence): the AI leaves that chat to you for a while (AI steps back after your own reply, 12 hours by default).
• The customer sent STOP.
• The 24-hour window is closed (below), or the plan's monthly WhatsApp limit is used up. The chat then waits for your team.

The 24-hour rule

WhatsApp allows free replies only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. After that, only paid, pre-approved template messages may be sent. The inbox shows until when a reply is possible; a reply WhatsApp refuses is kept and marked not delivered. The Send test button follows the same rule: it only reaches a phone that messaged the number in the last 24 hours.

In the inbox

WhatsApp chats show a WhatsApp badge with the customer's name and number; the channel filter shows only website or only WhatsApp chats. Inside a chat you see the number it came in on, the 24-hour window, and per message whether it was sent, delivered, read or not delivered. Replies you type in the inbox go out over WhatsApp right away. With Coexistence, replies you send from the WhatsApp Business app appear in the inbox too, and the app's earlier chats are imported so the AI knows what was said before.

Memory

WhatsApp chats run for days. The AI remembers the last twelve messages word for word and a short summary of everything before them; see Memory.

Privacy

WhatsApp messages travel through Meta. Meta may keep message content for up to 30 days to deliver it and for safety. Your business is the controller of the chats; Blengi processes them for you. The customer's number is used to answer them and is saved as a lead. Mention this in your own privacy policy.

Nightly tests

For an AI employee with a connected number, every test case also runs through the WhatsApp door — nightly and with Run now — and is judged on the text the customer would get on WhatsApp. Its runs are marked nightly-whatsapp / manual-whatsapp.

Setup for Blengi (platform)

In the Meta app, set the WhatsApp webhook URL to https://<your-domain>/api/v1/channels/whatsapp/webhook with the verify token above, and subscribe to the fields messages, smb_message_echoes, history and smb_app_state_sync (the last three for Coexistence). The WhatsApp tab shows the exact address. Connect with Facebook needs Meta business verification and Tech Provider status for Blengi's app.