This guide walks you through the recommended process for setting up a brand new WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) for use with Talkative, covering both the Talkative configuration steps and the required actions within Meta. Creating a new WABA specifically for your Talkative integration is the most straightforward and reliable approach, particularly if you want clear ownership, clean permissions and minimal legacy complications.
Configuration Pre-Requisites
Before starting the WhatsApp Business Account setup process, please ensure the following are in place:
Meta access
Business Portfolio readiness
Phone number readiness (if supplying your own number)
Note: If Talkative is provisioning the phone number on your behalf, the above phone number requirements do not apply.
If your organisation already has a verified Meta Business Portfolio, you can create and add additional WhatsApp Business Accounts under the same portfolio without needing to repeat full business verification each time. This makes it possible to manage multiple numbers, brands or use cases within a single verified business entity, while keeping governance and control centralised.
All links provided here will be for the EU region of Engage - if you are using a different region, you will need to update the regional identifier in the URL to the correct region.
Adding a WhatsApp Service Config to Engage
To begin, we need to start adding a new WhatsApp Service Config to Engage - navigate to the settings page. https://eu.engage.app/settings and then click in the quick search and type “Service Configs”
You can also access quick search from anywhere in the application by using the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD + K
Click “Add Service” and then select “WhatsApp Business Account”
Ensure the pre-requisite section above has been completed, otherwise this section may fail which could cause future issues with the account.
On this page, you will be shown a “Login with Facebook” button. After clicking this you will be guided through the Meta WhatsApp Business configuration. This page will open in a popup, so ensure you have popups allowed in your browser.
If you are working through this process with a Talkative support engineer - you will need to share your entire screen and not just the window as it will be harder to see the popups and steps which need completing.
Once you have clicked this button, you will likely see the following pop-up:
The popup you see may instead show a login portal - if you are already logged in to Meta you will be asked to continue. Ensure this account matches the account you require to complete the link. Click “Continue as…”
The next screen will provide information about the permissions you will share with us and Twilio. The permissions we obtain are purely for WhatsApp configuration.
We will at no point have any permissions or control over your personal Facebook account or any other of your Meta assets.
Twilio will be attached to your WhatsApp business account and any associated billing will be managed via that. Your Talkative subscription and agreement covers any ongoing billing and you will not be billed directly by Twilio.
Once you have reviewed this information, please click “Get Started” In the next step you will need to choose a Business Portfolio:
You should choose the correct business portfolio from the list, or add a new one:
If you add a new one, you will need to verify it which may take some time - if you have an existing suitable one, this will pre-fill the details below.
Next, choose a WhatsApp Business account:
If you are using a verified business profile, you can add many WhatsApp Business Accounts. In the above screenshot we have many profiles, and if these are unlinked, you could add them again, however, for the purpose of this guide, we will create a new WhatsApp Business Account.
Selecting Create a WhatsApp Business account will prompt you to enter a name for the WABA and the timezone. Select these and click “Next”.
Take note of your WhatsApp Business Account Name - you will need to enter it into a field exactly as it is written here later on. We recommend copying this into a notepad.
Finally, you will be asked to confirm Talkative’s access request which details what we will be able to access and administer. Once you have reviewed, click “Confirm”.
The screen will indicate a connection is being made and you should wait until this completes. Please do not close the window:
This can take several minutes to complete.
Once this has completed you will see a confirmation screen:
Now, click “Finish” and the popup will be closed and your Engage window will refresh:
Enter the name of the WhatsApp business account you copied earlier. This must be entered exactly as you entered it into the creation form:
Once you have completed this - you will now have the option to add a WhatsApp Number. You will be directed to this page immediately, but you can defer this step until later.
For more information about adding numbers to Talkative, click here.
You can confirm your new WhatsApp Business account is created by visiting https://business.facebook.com/latest/settings/whatsapp_account/ and then you will see the new WhatsApp account listed:
