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Your receptionist answers WhatsApp messages from your own WhatsApp account, and steps back when you reply yourself.
With WhatsApp on, your receptionist answers the WhatsApp messages people send to your business number, the same way it answers the website chat. It can take bookings, answer questions and take call back requests. Each chat appears in Conversations.
How it works
- You link your WhatsApp the same way WhatsApp Web does, as a linked device. Messages still arrive on your phone as normal.
- When you reply to a customer yourself from your phone, your receptionist stays out of that chat for a while, so you don't talk over each other. After you reply yourself, leave that chat to you for: 1 hour, 4 hours, 12 hours (the default), 24 hours or a week. Your own replies show in Conversations too.
- One conversation per chat. After a day's quiet, the next message starts a new conversation.
- If you also use Review requests, it can ask how a visit went over WhatsApp, and the answers come back here.
What you need
- The phone with your business WhatsApp on it, and its number.
- WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business, on a number you're happy to link.
Setting it up
- Request the plugin from the Plugins page (see Plugins overview). If it says "WhatsApp is being set up", it isn't ready for your account yet.
- Once it's on, type Your WhatsApp number with its country code, like +44 7700 900123, and press Get a link code.
- On your phone, open WhatsApp and go to Settings > Linked devices > Link a device.
- Tap Link with phone number instead and type the code from the dashboard.
- The dashboard updates by itself and says "WhatsApp is linked". A code lasts 10 minutes; if it runs out, get a new one.
To stop, press Unlink WhatsApp. If you unlink it from your phone instead, the plugin shows that it needs linking again.
What it costs
£4.99 a month.
Privacy
- Messages pass between WhatsApp and your receptionist through the CallsCovered WhatsApp bridge. They're read by the AI that runs your receptionist and kept with your other conversations.
- The linked-device session is stored with your business, encrypted.
- WhatsApp's own terms apply to your account.
STOP and opt-outs
- Messages come from your own WhatsApp number. There's no separate sender name.
- Typing STOP on WhatsApp doesn't opt someone out. Your receptionist reads it like any other message.
- Anyone who has replied STOP to a text from your number won't be sent review requests by WhatsApp either.
See Texts and opt-outs.
Limits
- WhatsApp doesn't officially support automated replies on personal or Business app accounts, so there's a small risk WhatsApp limits your number. Don't use it for bulk messages.
- Only written messages are read. Voice notes, photos and other files get a polite reply asking them to type, or to call you.
- Group chats aren't answered.
- One chat gets at most 20 answers an hour.
- Your receptionist only replies to people who message you. It doesn't start conversations, except review requests if you choose WhatsApp for those.
Still stuck? Write to hello@callscovered.ai with your business name and what you were trying to do, and a person will reply.