The platform
What the WhatsApp Business Platform actually is, and what changes for you
Most of what is written about this online is written to sell something. This page is the parts that decide whether it works for your business, including the parts that are inconvenient.
The one thing to understand first
There are three different WhatsApps and they are often confused. Plain WhatsApp is the app on a personal phone. The WhatsApp Business app is the free app a small shop installs, running on one handset, with one person holding it. The WhatsApp Business Platform is the third: your number connected to Meta’s servers directly, so software can send and receive on it and a whole team can answer at once.
Nothing about the customer’s side changes. They message the same number in the same app. What changes is your side: the conversation stops living on one person’s phone.
WhatsApp
The app on a personal phone.
WhatsApp Business app
Free, one handset, one person holding it.
Team inbox
Layla HaddadSara is handling thisHi, could you send me a quote for 20 office chairs?
Also on the WhatsApp Business app
Of course, Layla. Sending it now.
Sara · from the inbox
Quote, office chairsPDF documentSent automatically by your system
Reply to Layla…WhatsApp Business Platform
Your number on Meta’s servers, a whole team answering at once.
Your number, and the three ways to start
- A number already running the WhatsApp Business app
- This is the common case and it is the one people worry about. Meta's Coexistence arrangement lets the number run on the platform and stay in the app on the handset at the same time, so your staff keep the phone they know while the software works on the same number. Chat history from the phone comes across at connection.
- A number with no WhatsApp on it at all
- A clean landline or mobile number the business owns. Meta verifies it by call or SMS. Nothing to migrate and nothing to lose.
- A number currently on personal WhatsApp
- It has to be removed from personal WhatsApp first, and that deletes the chats on it. If those conversations matter, use a different number. We will say so before you do anything.
The number stays yours
It is verified into a WhatsApp Business Account owned by your own Meta business portfolio, not ours. If you leave us, you keep the number, the account and the history: what changes is who provides the software on top.
Your display name
The name your customers see above the conversation is reviewed by Meta and it has to relate to your actual business. A registered trading name is approved routinely; a slogan, a category, or a name with no connection to the company is not. It can be changed later, and each change goes through review again.
Once your business is verified and the number has held a good quality rating, Meta can show a green tick beside the name. That is Meta’s decision, not something anyone can sell you, and no one who promises it to you is telling the truth.
The 24-hour window, and why templates exist
When a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens. Inside it you can reply with anything: free text, a picture, a document, a voice note. Outside it you cannot send free text at all. You can only send a message template that Meta has approved in advance.
This is the rule that surprises people, and it is the rule that keeps WhatsApp usable: it is why your own inbox is not full of businesses you never contacted.
Illustration of the rule. The template wording is an example; the placeholders are filled in by your system for each customer.
- Utility templates
- About something the customer already did: an order confirmed, a shipment dispatched, an invoice due, an appointment tomorrow. These are the ones a manufacturer or distributor uses most.
- Authentication templates
- One-time passcodes and login verification, and nothing else.
- Marketing templates
- Anything promotional: an offer, a new product, a catalogue, a re-engagement message. Meta prices these highest and reviews them hardest, and a customer can stop them at any time.
- Service messages
- Your free-text replies inside the 24-hour window. Not a template, and not something you draft in advance.
Templates are submitted to Meta and usually reviewed within a day. Rejections are common on the first attempt and are almost always about wording rather than intent. We write them, submit them, and deal with the rejections; you approve the words.
Opt-in, which is not a formality
Before you send a customer a template, you need their agreement to be messaged on WhatsApp, collected somewhere you can point to: a tick box on your order form, a line on the contract, a reply to a first message, a note in your own system. Meta requires it, and enforcement is real.
The practical version: a business that only messages people who asked to hear from it does not run into limits. A business that imports a bought list does, quickly, and it takes the number down with it.
Messaging limits and quality rating
A new number starts able to open a limited number of new conversations in a rolling day. Send well, and Meta raises the ceiling in steps. Meta also scores the number’s quality from how recipients react: blocks and reports push it down, and a low rating lowers the ceiling rather than only warning you.
You do not manage this by hand. We watch the rating, tell you when a template is doing damage, and stop the send before Meta does.
Who bills you for what
From Meta
Per message
- Rate
- set by Meta, per category and country
- Paid to
- Meta, from your own account
- Through us
- never; no mark-up
Meta publishes the rates itself.
From BitByteCore
Per month
- Fee
- $99 / $249 / $599 a month
- Covers
- the software and the work
- Setup
- one-off, stated next to each level
Every figure on this page is one you are actually billed.
- Meta bills you directly, per message
- Rates depend on the template category and the customer's country, and Meta publishes them and changes them. You add a payment method to your own Meta account and Meta charges it. We never mark this up, because it never passes through us.
- We bill you for the software and the work
- The inbox, the templates, the campaigns, the connection to your own systems, and the people who set it all up and keep it running.
Where the current rates are
Meta’s message pricing is published at business.whatsapp.com. We deliberately do not restate the numbers here, because a page that quotes them is out of date the first time Meta moves them, and being wrong about your bill is worse than sending you one click away.
What we add on top
A shared inbox
Your whole team on one number, with conversations assigned to a person rather than shouted across the office, and a full history that stays when someone leaves.
Templates that are written and kept alive
Drafted, submitted, resubmitted after a rejection, and rewritten when Meta's rules move.
Campaigns to your own contacts
Sent to people who opted in, paced so the number's quality rating survives, with the results in front of you.
Messages from your own systems
Order confirmed, dispatched, delivered, invoice due, sent automatically by the system that already knows. This is the part that pays for itself.
The full list
One inbox for the whole team
Your number, answered by people who can all see the same conversation.
- Shared inbox on your existing business number
- Conversations assigned to a person, by account
- Your history brought across and kept; recent conversations searchable by text
- Photos, voice notes and PDFs in the same thread
- Keeps working alongside the WhatsApp Business app on the handset
Messages that go out right
Templates and campaigns that survive Meta's rules and reviews.
- Message templates written, submitted and kept approved
- Campaigns to the contacts who opted in, paced for your rating
- Quality rating and messaging limits watched for you
- Rewritten when Meta's rules change, without you asking
Your own systems, sending on their own
The order, dispatch and invoice your software already knows about.
- Connected by a URL call, an API or database, or a file
- Order, dispatch, delivery and payment messages sent automatically
- Replies sent back into your system where you need them, built and quoted with the connection
- Reporting built around your own process
AI that helps the person replying
It drafts; your team decides what goes out. Nothing is sent on its own.
- Suggested replies drawn from the conversation and your own past answers
- A summary of a long thread for whoever picks it up
- A quote drafted from the chat, ready for approval
- Rewriting a draft: shorter, politer, or in the customer's language
- Voice notes transcribed and photos read into text
People who know your setup
A managed service, not a login and a help centre.
- Meta business verification seen through with you
- Onboarding and training for your team
- Support by e-mail and WhatsApp
- A named person who knows your setup
See it on your own number
A short call, your questions answered, and a clear picture of what connecting your number involves. No obligation and nothing to install.
Book a demo