After you've connected a WhatsApp business number to Intercom, you can start using WhatsApp as a channel in the Inbox.

Carry conversations from the Messenger to WhatsApp

Go to Settings > Channels > WhatsApp.
Under Switch from Messenger to WhatsApp you’ll find the toggle to "Offer to switch to WhatsApp".

Switching this on will give your customers the option to move from the Messenger to WhatsApp when they start a new conversation:

All they need to do is scan the QR code and they’ll be notified in WhatsApp when you reply, and can reply there directly.

Teammates can also send the "Continue in WhatsApp" option in Messenger conversations directly from the Inbox by pressing ⌘/Ctrl K and choosing Use Continue on WhatsApp:

The Messenger to WhatsApp transition only works if you Show reply times during office hours in your Messenger.

Choose when to count messages as new conversations

Because WhatsApp conversations exist as a single thread in WhatsApp, it's up to you when they should be treated as a new conversation in Intercom.

Define this in the Settings > Channels > WhatsApp in the section When to treat messages as new conversations.

Enter a duration in minutes, hours, or days. Any new messages after that period (in a closed conversation) will start a new conversation in Intercom.

How leads are merged based on their WhatsApp number

For an inbound message from a new contact, a new lead will be created in Intercom with the name from their WhatsApp profile, and the WhatsApp number as part of their lead data.

If their WhatsApp number matches a phone number in another user’s data, they will be automatically merged if you've enabled the option in the Identify existing users section of WhatsApp Settings.

By default it's disabled and a new lead is created. If you have duplicate contacts, this will apply to the most recently active.

You can also merge a WhatsApp created lead and an existing user in your workspace by using our REST API.

If a user's number is formatted in an international or national format, the system will recognize it regardless of the spaces.

Respond to WhatsApp conversations in the inbox

Once a WhatsApp conversation is in Intercom, it can be easily identified by the WhatsApp icon.

You can receive:

Text
Images
Attachments
Gifs and videos
Audio & voice notes
Locations

You can send:

Text & emoji
Images
Attachments
Plain text macros

Macros that contain unsupported file types (gifs, articles, etc.) can be sent but will appear to customers as links.

Replying to conversations after 24 hours

WhatsApp has a limit called the “24 hour customer care window”, to ensure that your customers receive a response within a reasonable time frame, and existing conversations aren’t used for unrelated outbound messaging after they’ve been resolved.

What this means is that for any conversation from WhatsApp, if the last response from the customer was more than 24 hours ago, you can no longer reply with free text, but only with message templates.

In these cases you’ll see the following warning in your inbox:

Click Choose template to open a window where you can choose from pre-approved templates in the account.

These templates are managed from your WhatsApp Manager.

Click Send to conversation to send the template and continue the conversation.

Once the customer responds, you will have 24 hours to reply as normal, before the limit will take effect again.

Start a new WhatsApp conversation from the Inbox

You can also start a new WhatsApp conversation with a customer from the Inbox.

WhatsApp allows you to use the pre-approved message templates, which you’ll be able to select and send to a customer when starting a conversation in the Inbox.