Your AI Connector Docs

Connect Your Own Meta App

Run WhatsApp through your own Meta app and pay Meta directly at their own rates. Your AI Connector adds no per-message fees on this connection, and there is no Twilio account in the middle. Because the WhatsApp account is yours, your clients only ever see your business name.

This is the most technical of the WhatsApp connection options — you will create an app inside Meta’s developer site and copy four values back into Your AI Connector. Plan for about 20 minutes. If that sounds like more than you want to deal with, the managed WhatsApp Business connection stays the simplest way to get started.

What you need

  • Access to your Meta Business Manager account.
  • A phone number that is not already in use on the WhatsApp app.
  • About 20 minutes.

Part 1 — Set up your app in Meta

Do these steps on Meta’s side first. You will collect four values along the way: an App ID, an App secret, an Access token, and a WhatsApp account ID.

1. Create an app

Go to developers.facebook.com, open My Apps and press Create App. Choose the Business type and give it any name — the name is only visible to you.

2. Add WhatsApp to the app

On the app dashboard, find WhatsApp in the list of products and press Set up. Meta creates a test WhatsApp account with a free test number so you can try things out before connecting a real number.

3. Turn on the WhatsApp permissions

This is the step most guides skip, and skipping it is the most common reason the connection fails later.

In your app, open App Review, then Permissions and Features. Search for whatsapp_business_management. If it says No access, press Get standard access — Meta asks you to re-enter your password and grants it on the spot. There is no waiting period and no app review; it is a single button.

whatsapp_business_messaging normally has Standard access already. Both permissions need to show Standard access before the next step, otherwise the token you generate will be missing one of them.

4. Create a system user

In Meta Business Settings, open Users, then System users. Add one and give it admin access to both your app and your WhatsApp account.

5. Generate a token for that user

Select the system user and press Generate token. Pick your app, choose a token that never expires, and tick both whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management. Meta shows the token once — copy it right away.

6. Find your WhatsApp account ID

In Business Settings, open Accounts, then WhatsApp accounts, and select your account. The long number under its name is the ID.

Your App ID and App secret are in the app’s App settings, then Basic. Press Show next to App secret to reveal it.

Part 2 — Connect it in Your AI Connector

Open Settings, then Channels, find the WhatsApp Business API card and press Connect WhatsApp. Choose Use a number you already have, then Your own Meta app. The wizard opens on a short overview — press Start setup.

  1. Your details. This step repeats the five Meta-side steps from Part 1 next to a form for your four values. Paste the App ID, App secret, Access token and WhatsApp account ID exactly as Meta shows them, with no extra spaces, and press Check my details. Nothing is saved until they work — Your AI Connector checks them with Meta first.
  1. Pick the number to connect. The wizard lists every number on your WhatsApp account, each with Meta’s own quality rating. Pick the one this workspace should send and receive with and press Connect this number.
  1. Activation and delivery. Your AI Connector activates the number for the Cloud API and registers its webhook with Meta automatically, so incoming messages reach your inbox — in most cases you land straight on the connection card with a “Number connected” confirmation. If the automatic step cannot finish, the wizard shows the callback URL and verify token with copy buttons and walks you through adding them in Meta yourself; the same values stay visible on the connection card in case Meta ever asks you to re-enter them.
  2. The wizard checks the connection itself. On the last step it verifies the setup automatically — no waiting on your part. Once the card shows connected, send yourself a WhatsApp message from another phone and watch it arrive in your chats: conversations on that number now flow in like any other channel, and your AI agents can reply on it. If the check finds something Meta still needs (for example the number’s verification), the card tells you exactly what, and Verify connection runs the check again once you’ve fixed it.

You can come back to the same page any time to check the connection status, Reconnect with fresh details, or press Disconnect — your number, your Meta account and your billing stay yours.

Good to know

  • The 24-hour window applies, as on every WhatsApp Business connection. You can always reply free-form to people who messaged you in the last 24 hours. Outside that window, WhatsApp only lets businesses start conversations with an approved message template — a plain text message will be accepted by Meta but will not be delivered.
  • Meta bills you directly for conversations at their published country rates, on the payment method attached to your WhatsApp account in Meta. Your AI Connector does not charge per message on this connection; AI usage is billed in credits as usual.
  • Keep a valid payment method on that WhatsApp account. Without one, Meta blocks every conversation your business starts — broadcasts, campaigns and any template message — and shows the error in WhatsApp Manager. On this connection a broadcast or campaign refuses to launch while that’s the case, and tells you to add a payment method rather than failing message by message. Replies to people who messaged you first still go out for now, but from 1 October 2026 Meta charges for those too, so an account without a working payment method goes fully silent on that date. The whole picture is on WhatsApp Costs & the October 2026 Change.
  • Your cost estimate looks different here. Because these fees never touch your credits, the estimate on a broadcast’s review step (and a campaign’s launch step) shows the contact count and country split with a note that Meta bills them to your WhatsApp Business Account, instead of a credit total.
  • Test numbers are free. The test number Meta gives every new app can message up to five verified recipients at no cost — a handy way to try the full setup before pointing a real number at it.

Templates

Message templates work on this connection, and they live in your own WhatsApp Business Account. Create one on the Templates page and it is created on that account and reviewed by Meta, with the approved, pending or rejected result shown back to you here. Templates you already have in WhatsApp Manager appear in the list on their own, and a Sync from Meta button pulls in anything you have just changed there. Sending works as it does on every other WhatsApp connection — pick an approved template to start a conversation or reopen one outside the 24-hour window. The details are in Using Templates With Your Own Meta WhatsApp Account.

If something does not work

  • “We couldn’t connect with those details” — re-copy each value; a stray space is the usual cause. The message includes Meta’s own reply, which usually names the value that is wrong.
  • The error says the token is missing whatsapp_business_management — your app has not been granted that permission yet. Go back to Part 1, step 3, press Get standard access, then generate a fresh token with both permissions ticked and check your details again. Regenerating the token without that step will keep producing the same error.
  • Your token disappeared — Meta only shows a token once. Generate a new one from the same system user; the old one keeps working until you revoke it, but only the new one is visible.
  • Messages you start are not arriving — check the 24-hour window note above: outside the window, only template messages are delivered.
  • Nothing at all arrives — the number is probably not activated for the Cloud API yet. A number can only live in one place at a time, so if it is still signed in to the WhatsApp Business app on a phone, remove it there first, then press Verify connection on the connection card. Your AI Connector activates it for you and tells you on the spot if Meta is still missing something.
  • “This number already has a two-step verification PIN” — the number was set up somewhere before and kept its PIN. Turn two-step verification off for it in WhatsApp Manager, then press Reconnect.
  • “Meta has not verified this number yet” — finish the number’s verification in WhatsApp Manager (Meta sends it a code), then press Reconnect.
  • “This number is hosted on the On-Premises API” — it is running on WhatsApp’s older self-hosted product, which cannot share a number with the Cloud API. Migrate it to the Cloud API in WhatsApp Manager first.