Considerations for WhatsApp in Service Cloud

General Account Limits and Considerations

• Meta doesn’t support business-to-business messaging.
• You can create multiple enhanced WhatsApp channels in Salesforce, each linked to a different WhatsApp number. For example, if you want each rep on your team to have their own dedicated WhatsApp number, create one channel for each rep's number.
• Group WhatsApp chats aren't supported in enhanced WhatsApp channels. If a messaging user adds another WhatsApp user to a messaging session with your business, their messages aren't delivered and the session doesn't appear in the Omni-Channel utility or sidebar. 
• Meta occasionally delays the delivery of messages that they consider damaging to their messaging ecosystem – for example, when a business tries to send a message to a customer who has not replied to a previous message from the business within a specified time frame. If you encounter this error, don’t immediately attempt to resend the message. Retry sending the message after progressively longer intervals until it is successfully delivered. 
• Depending on how the Meta API processes messages, inbound or outbound messages sent in quick succession may not be delivered in the intended order. This may happen if the messages are sent by a bot or with a poor network connection or carrier issues; it can also occur if the messages and attachments have different sizes.
• Due to Meta’s rules and regulations, some messages that you send might not be delivered to your customers. For example, a message isn’t delivered if the customer blocked your phone number, hasn’t been online for 30 days, or is in a restricted or sanctioned country. In certain situations, Meta doesn’t disclose the reason for non-delivery due to privacy and policy reasons. For more information and potential workarounds, see WhatsApp Cloud API Support.
• Salesforce ensures system integrity by moving messages that cannot be processed after maximum retry attempts to a secure Dead Letter Queue (DLQ) for manual intervention and root-cause analysis. To maintain conversational relevance and performance, any message exceeding a 24-hour processing window will be automatically expired and purged from the queue.

WhatsApp Business Account Considerations

Your Meta Business Account can be associated with multiple WhatsApp Business accounts (WABA). Across all of the WABAs associated with your Meta Business Account, you can use up to 25 WhatsApp phone numbers. This limit may differ if WhatsApp considers one of your numbers a verified Official Business Account, which is a label reserved for notable brands. And if you maintain WhatsApp channels with another business service provider in addition to Salesforce, those channels also count against your limit.

Here’s how to increase your phone number limit:

• Once your Meta Business Manager (Business Portfolio) is verified by Meta, your phone number limit automatically increases from 2 to 25 associated phone numbers.
• If your initial 25 phone numbers receive a good quality rating from Meta (based on traffic volume and content quality), open a case with Salesforce Customer Support to increase your limit. Support then works with Meta to increase your limit up to 120 phone numbers per WABA.

Other considerations for WABAs:

• There is no limit to the number of WABAs that you can associate with an org. However, we don’t support associating a single WABA with more than one Salesforce org. A sandbox and a production org are considered two separate orgs.
• In enhanced WhatsApp channels, you can create and use up to 250 messaging templates per WABA. If you’re using enhanced WhatsApp channels and manage your own WABA in Meta Business Manager, request a change to this limit by contacting WhatsApp Direct Support. Select Ask a question, select the topic WABiz: Account & WABA, and select Request type: Increase phone number limit.

Message Credits

If you have the Agentforce Contact Center Digital add-on, you must purchase message credits to create a WhatsApp channel. During channel creation, we'll let you know if they're missing. Message credits determine the quantity and nature of messages that your business can send, and allow you to access the full WhatsApp feature set. They appear in Digital Wallet under the Salesforce Message Credits - WhatsApp card.

Message Recipient Limits

For each new WhatsApp channel, WhatsApp limits the number of unique users that your org can send outbound messages to in a 24-hour period, using WhatsApp-approved templates. This limit doesn’t apply to the number of messages you send or to responses to user-initiated messages. See Capacity and Messaging Limits in the WhatsApp documentation.

Enhanced Messaging for WhatsApp

• Standard WhatsApp channels were retired on Oct. 22, 2025.
• If you turn on Messaging and then later enable enhanced domains, you must refresh Messaging to continue receiving messages in enhanced channels. To do this, toggle Messaging off and on again on the Messaging Settings page in Setup. Your settings and channels are preserved.
• If a service rep opens the messaging session in multiple console tabs (for example, opening it directly and then opening it through the Messaging End User record), several known issues occur:
  • Normally, after a service rep transfers a messaging session, their AgentWork record closes and a new AgentWork record is opened for the receiving service rep. In a two-tab scenario, the AgentWork record for the service rep who transferred the session remains open in the second tab. As a result, that service rep’s stats aren’t accurate.
  • The messaging inactivity timer fails for this messaging session.

WhatsApp Pay

• Salesforce isn't liable for any payment failures. In case of a payment failure, Meta recommends that you contact the payment provider to resolve the issue.
• Brazil doesn't receive any payment status from Meta. You will receive confirmation or failure status from the payment gateway. You can populate these details in a custom Salesforce object.

Content Sharing

You can send many types of content in WhatsApp channels. For a full list, see Compare Standard and Enhanced WhatsApp Channel Capabilities.

WhatsApp has these limitations related to sharing content.

• The following content types and interactions aren’t supported: Locations, contacts, polls, tap-back reactions, and message deletion.
• If a customer sends unsupported content such as a poll or location, an error message notifies service reps that the customer sent a message with unsupported content. Service reps can ask the customer to share the information another way.
• When a customer sends an image, the service rep sees a preview in the Service Console and can download the image. File previews aren’t supported, but reps can download files.
• If a customer replies to a previous message in the WhatsApp chat, service reps see the reply but not the original message that the customer was replying to.

Sharing Your WhatsApp Channel

To encourage customers to contact you in WhatsApp, you can link to your enhanced WhatsApp channel from a website. Use the universal link format. Here’s an example link that includes custom link text: https://wa.me/15551234567?text=Message%20us%20in%WhatsApp.

Customer Care Window

The 24 hours after a customer sends a message to your business is considered the customer care window, in which a service rep or bot assists the customer with their inquiry. After the customer care window passes, a service rep can respond to a customer only using pre-approved templates. Any messaging other than these templates must be sent within the customer care window. WhatsApp imposes this response time limit to prevent outbound marketing.

Pricing

You can send some types of WhatsApp messages to customers at no charge, while other types incur charges. If you have the Agentforce Contact Center Digital add-on, your WhatsApp billing model is based on message credits in Digital Wallet. Talk to your Salesforce account executive to understand when you’ll be charged for sending a message in WhatsApp.

Business Verification

Some businesses can verify their business in WhatsApp, which gives them access to extra technologies, developer features, and higher limits. We recommend verifying your business before you create a WhatsApp account in Salesforce. See the Meta documentation.

Customer-Initiated Versus Proactive Messaging

Businesses can interact with their customers over enhanced WhatsApp in two ways:

• Customer Care Interactions: Customer-initiated conversations that require a response from your team within 24 hours
• Notifications: Business-initiated, preapproved, templated messages that can be sent at any time by service reps or automation (such as flows or processes)

WhatsApp requires you to proactively and explicitly receive an end user’s consent before sending them notifications. You must receive this consent outside of WhatsApp. You can receive it from another communication channel, such as email or text message, or as part of your company’s normal business processes. After you receive an end user’s consent outside of WhatsApp, you can use this information to send notifications. See WhatsApp Business Policy.

End users don’t have to provide advance, explicit consent to initiate an inbound customer care interaction. To learn more about how customers opt in and out of communication, see Customize the Messaging Opt-In and Opt-Out Experience.

Acquiring a Phone Number for Your WhatsApp Channel

To create a WhatsApp channel in Salesforce, you need a phone number to associate with your channel. Your phone number must meet these requirements.

• Owned by you.
• Has a valid country code and area code (fixed-line or mobile). You can’t use SMS short codes with WhatsApp, but you can use toll-free numbers.
• Able to receive text messages, voice calls, or both.
• Fits the criteria below for number reuse.

The phone number you use acts as an identifier for your WhatsApp Messaging channel. Registering a number with WhatsApp doesn’t limit your everyday usage behavior. You can still use it for standard business purposes like calling or texting. While you can use the same number for communication in multiple countries, we recommend designating a separate number for each country to avoid confusion or the appearance of fraud.

If you don’t have a phone number that meets these criteria, you can request one from your telephony provider or web-based CPaaS provider.

Number Reuse and Migration

Most types of WhatsApp phone numbers can be associated with an enhanced WhatsApp channel.

Note The WhatsApp messaging channel involves integrations with one or more Non-SFDC Applications, including Twilio, Inc. and WhatsApp, as further detailed in the Messaging Notices and Licensing Information Documentation, available here. By activating the WhatsApp messaging channel, you're affirming that you have the authority to bind your company/organization to any Non-SFDC Application terms and conditions that are set forth in the Messaging Notices and Licensing Information Documentation.

Need help with WhatsApp? Review WhatsApp Business Platform Support Considerations.