Notifications

WhatsApp Calling

Explains how to allow WhatsApp calls to your business number, show or hide the call button, and set call hours. Useful for setting up a voice assistant that answers calls to your WhatsApp number.

# Overview

WhatsApp users can call your business number from WhatsApp, the same way they message it. Calling is off by default, and you switch it on per WhatsApp profile in the manage platform.

Allowing calls only lets WhatsApp users call the number. To pick up, you also need a template that answers the calls, see Answering calls.

# Requirements

• A WhatsApp profile for the number, see Notifications.
• A WhatsApp messaging limit of at least 2000 on the number. WhatsApp doesn't allow calls on numbers with a lower limit, and saving the call settings fails. See Messaging limit.
• A template that answers calls, see Answering calls.

# Messaging limit

The messaging limit is the number of unique customers your business can message in a rolling 24 hours, outside of their 24 hour customer service window. It counts customers, not messages, and is shared by all the numbers in the Meta business portfolio that owns the WhatsApp account.

You don't need to send 2000 messages a day to use calling. The portfolio only needs a messaging limit of 2000 or higher. New portfolios start with a limit of 250.

To check your current limit, open WhatsApp Manager for the portfolio that owns the number, and go to Account tools → Messaging limits. This page also shows what's still needed to raise the limit.

To raise the limit to 2000, complete one of the following:

• Business verification: complete Meta's business verification for the portfolio that owns the WhatsApp account.
• Messaging activity: send high quality template messages to 2000 unique customers, outside of their customer service window, within a rolling 30 days.

Meta reviews your message quality before approving the increase, so completing a step doesn't guarantee an immediate upgrade.

# Allowing calls

1. Navigate to the WhatsApp Profiles section of the manage platform.
2. Select the profile for the number.
3. In the WhatsApp Calling section below the profile, click the
   Call settings
   button.
4. Turn on Allow WhatsApp calls.
5. Click the
   Save
   button.

The settings are saved on WhatsApp straight away, but WhatsApp can take up to 7 days to show them to every user. Most users see them much sooner. To check the change on your own phone, open the chat with the business number in WhatsApp and open the chat info page, which refreshes the settings.

To stop calls, turn off Allow WhatsApp calls and save. The call button disappears and WhatsApp users can no longer call the number.

# Call settings

Once calls are allowed, the call settings page has the following options.

# Allow WhatsApp calls

Allows WhatsApp users to call the number. When off, the number can't be called and the call button isn't shown.

# Show call button

Shows the call button in the chat with your business and on the business profile, so users can call you at any time.

When off, the call button is hidden and users can't call the number on their own. They can still call through call buttons and call links in messages you send them, so you control when calls happen.

# Call hours

Limits calls to set hours. Outside these hours, WhatsApp tells callers that the business is closed, shows when they can call next, and offers to chat instead. When call hours are off, calls are allowed at any time.

• Timezone: the timezone of the hours below.
• Weekly hours: the hours for each day of the week, with up to 2 ranges per day, eg 08:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 17:00. A day without hours is closed.
• Holidays: hours on a specific date that replace the weekly hours for that day, eg shorter hours on a public holiday. Up to 20 holidays, and the dates must be in the future.

# Restrictions

WhatsApp can restrict calling on a number, eg when too many calls go unanswered. The call settings page shows a warning with the reason and how long the restriction lasts. While a number is restricted, WhatsApp users can't call it, whatever the settings are.

# Answering calls

A call to the number reaches your stub the same way as a WhatsApp message does, and triggers the _update_from_whatsapp feedback action. Your template then decides what to do with the call:

• Pick up with Start Voice Chat on the whatsapp channel and Answer WhatsApp Call, so the caller talks to an AI voice assistant.
• Decline with Reject WhatsApp Call.

A call that isn't answered within 25 seconds is rejected automatically, and the stub gets a missed call event instead. Calls that can't be routed to a stub are rejected straight away.

Once a call is answered, it works like any live voice call, and the stub gets _update_from_voice updates, including when the call ends.