Register a WhatsApp Business account in Meta

Access to Meta Business Manager

• Go to https://business.facebook.com

• If you already have a Business Manager, simply log in. If you don't have one yet, create your business account by providing your name, email address, and company website.

Business Verification

• Go to Business Settings and complete the business identity verification process.

Meta will request official documents proving the existence of the business (CUIT, tax registration, company name, etc.). This step is essential to enable the official WhatsApp Business API.

Creating the WhatsApp Business App

• You must have a Meta developer account. Once you're in the Meta for Developers dashboard (https://developers.facebook.com/), go to the "My Apps" section and select Create New App.

• Follow the App Creation Wizard, completing the necessary information at each step of the form.

• Under Use Cases, select "Other," and under App Type, select "Business." In this final part of the Wizard, you can connect your app to the business portfolio to use WhatsApp as a product and grant certain app-level permissions for using the Meta API.

• From the available product options, select WhatsApp and click Configure. A test App ID and Access Token will be generated, which you can later replace with production credentials.

Associating a Telephone Number

• While at this point we already have a valid Test Phone Number to send and receive messages to certain declared destinations, Meta gives us the option to register a new number or reuse an existing one.

To do this, in the "API Configuration" → Add Phone Number section, follow the wizard to add a new number useful for development or production environments.

• During the process, your number will be verified via SMS or voice call. Once validated, the number will be officially linked to your WhatsApp Business account.

Setting Roles and App Permissions for WhatsApp in Meta Business

• It is necessary to have a System User who has permissions to manage APIs through the App. From https://business.facebook.com → Configuration → Users → System Users we must define said user and assign control over the asset.

This user will allow us to generate a Token that will be used as a passage mechanism in Webhooks (Callback URLs where OMniLeads will wait for incoming messages).

• We add a new role using "+Add", assign the App by searching for it in "Assigned Assets", and generate a token for webhooks from the "Generate Token" button.

App Role Selection in Meta Business Developer

• From Meta Developers, assign the previously created role to the App, in order to manage the API securely.

Webhook Configuration in Meta

• Configure the webhook through which OMniLeads will be ready to receive messages. Meta will request a verification token, which we'll use in OMniLeads when creating the line.

The format of the webhook must be:

https://my_omnileads_instance/webhookmeta/<AppID>

Where my_omnileads_instance is the FQDN of the instance (remember that SSL certificates must be valid and the domain reachable on the internet), and AppID is the application identifier.

• Make sure to subscribe to Messages events.