What You'll Have at the End of This Guide
By the time you finish this walkthrough, you will have a fully operational WhatsApp Business API connection: your phone number verified and active, your team inbox ready to receive and reply to messages, your first message template approved, and a broadcast ready to send. The whole process takes under 30 minutes for most businesses.
Before You Start: What You Need
- A Facebook/Meta Business account (not a personal account — a business manager at business.facebook.com)
- A phone number that isn't already registered to WhatsApp — a fresh SIM, a landline, or a number you're prepared to migrate from the regular app
- A Tenreply account — sign up here, it takes two minutes
- Your business name and description (used on your WhatsApp profile)
Step 1: Create Your Tenreply Account
Go to app.tenreply.com/register and sign up with your work email. Enter your business name and complete the quick onboarding form. You'll land on the Settings page, ready for the WhatsApp connection step.
Step 2: Connect via Meta Embedded Signup
In Tenreply, navigate to Settings → WhatsApp and click "Connect WhatsApp". This opens Meta's Embedded Signup flow in a popup — the official, secure process that Meta uses to grant Tenreply access to your WhatsApp Business Account.
Inside the Embedded Signup flow:
- Log in with your Meta Business Manager credentials
- Create or select your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA)
- Enter your business display name (appears on your WhatsApp profile) and description
- Add the phone number you want to use and choose how to receive the verification code (SMS or voice call)
- Enter the verification code
Click Finish. Tenreply receives the connection confirmation from Meta automatically. The whole flow takes about 5 minutes.
Step 3: Register Your Phone Number
Back in Tenreply's WhatsApp settings, you'll see your newly connected number. Click "Register Number" — this is a one-time step that activates your number on the WhatsApp Business API and generates a two-factor authentication PIN. Store this PIN somewhere safe.
Note: If your number was previously used with the regular WhatsApp app, you'll need to delete the WhatsApp app from that device first. The number cannot be active on both the app and the API simultaneously.
Step 4: Subscribe to Webhooks
For messages to flow into your Tenreply inbox in real time, your WABA must be subscribed to webhooks. In Settings → WhatsApp → Webhook, click "Subscribe to Webhooks". Tenreply handles the webhook URL and verification token automatically — this step just registers Tenreply's listener with Meta.
Step 5: Create Your First Message Template
The WhatsApp API lets you initiate conversations with customers using pre-approved message templates. Go to Templates in the Tenreply sidebar and click "New Template".
A well-structured first template to create:
- Category: Utility
- Name: welcome_new_customer
- Body: "Hi {{1}}, thanks for reaching out to {{2}}. We'll get back to you within {{3}}. Feel free to reply here anytime."
Submit it for review. Meta typically approves Utility templates within minutes to a few hours. Marketing templates may take up to 24 hours.
Step 6: Invite Your Team
Go to Settings → Team and invite your support or sales agents by email. Each agent gets their own login and can work in the shared inbox simultaneously — all conversations visible to the whole team, routable by assignment.
Step 7: Send Your First Broadcast
Once your template is approved, go to Broadcasts and click "New Broadcast". Upload a CSV of your opted-in contacts (name and phone number columns), select your approved template, map the variable fields, and schedule or send immediately.
Watch the delivery and read receipts populate in real time — this is the moment most teams realise how different the API is from anything they've used before.
What to Do Next
With the connection live and your first template approved, here's what to build next:
- Automation flows — set up an auto-reply for new conversations, a lead-qualification flow, or an out-of-hours message in Flows
- Contact segments — tag and filter contacts so you can send relevant broadcasts to the right audience
- Quick replies — build a library of saved responses for your most common questions
- Website widget — drop a click-to-WhatsApp button on your website in Settings → Features → Website Widget
Need Help?
If you hit any snags during setup, Tenreply's support team is reachable directly on WhatsApp. And if you're evaluating whether Tenreply is the right platform before you start, our comparison guides may help: