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Channels
Channels connects WhatsApp Business numbers and Facebook Messenger Pages straight to ZenTalk, with no website required. Each number or Page you connect gets its own AI bot, knowledge base, and inbox, so you can run ZenTalk purely for messaging apps if you like.
Where it lives
Open the Channels tab in the top bar. Owners, admins, and marketeers can use it. It sits next to Sites and works the same way: a channel is just a place your conversations come from. The page has two parts, WhatsApp Business and Facebook Messenger. Owners and admins can also manage WhatsApp numbers from the Social tab of Numbers & Wallet.
WhatsApp Business
Customers message your WhatsApp number and the chat lands in your inbox, where your AI assistant and your team reply. It works like the website widget, but on WhatsApp. Before you add a number, you can type a label in Name for the next number (optional), such as Sales line or Support, so you can recognise it in your inbox and lists.
There are two ways to add a number.
Connect your existing business WhatsApp
If you already run WhatsApp for your business, click Connect with Facebook. Meta's own window opens; sign in, then pick your business, your WhatsApp Business account, and the number. There is no monthly fee from ZenTalk for your own number.
Get a new number for your business
- Click Find a number. The Get a WhatsApp number window opens.
- Choose a Country, optionally an Area code, and click Search available numbers.
- Click Rent next to the number you want. The monthly price is shown on the button and is added to your subscription.
- Finish the Connect with Facebook step so the number is attached to your own WhatsApp Business account. The verification code goes to a number ZenTalk runs, so it is filled in for you.
While a rented number is being set up, it shows in a list of numbers in progress. Activation is usually automatic within a minute. If it stalls, click Finish setup, or Retry if setup failed. You can also Release a number you no longer want.
Connected numbers
Each connected number shows its name and status, with these controls:
- Live or Inactive: whether the number is currently taking chats.
- AI & bot settings: opens the bot settings for this number: its Channel name, persona, knowledge base, and whether the AI answers WhatsApp calls. See AI Sales Agent.
- WhatsApp calls: a switch that lets customers call this number from WhatsApp. Calls ring your team in the dashboard like widget calls, and the AI can answer if that is turned on in the bot settings. Your number must be eligible for calling on Meta's side; if Meta refuses, ZenTalk shows a plain message explaining why.
- Disconnect: stops inbound WhatsApp chats for that number.
When a number shows Disconnected
ZenTalk checks each number's health with Meta. If Meta reports a problem, for example because access was removed on the Meta side, the number shows Disconnected with the message "This number is not working right now", and messages and calls stop getting through. Workspace owners and admins also get an email.
- Click Reconnect to run the Connect with Facebook step again and restore access.
- Click Check again after fixing things on the Meta side to confirm the number is working.
Share an existing site's AI settings
By default each number gets its own bot. To have a number use an existing site's inbox, AI persona, and knowledge base instead, open Advanced: share an existing site's AI settings instead before you connect and pick the site.
WhatsApp in your inbox
WhatsApp chats appear in their own WhatsApp section of the Inbox. They are message threads, so you can reply any time within Meta's 24-hour messaging window after the customer's last message. When a chat started from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, the visitor panel shows the ad under Came from.
Facebook Messenger
Connect a Page
Click Connect with Facebook, sign in, and choose the Page you want. ZenTalk requests Messenger access and wires up the webhook for you, so incoming messages start flowing without any manual setup.
If you would rather paste credentials by hand, open Advanced: connect with a Page token instead and enter the Facebook Page ID and a long-lived Page Access Token. The token needs the pages_messaging and pages_manage_metadata permissions. Most people should use Connect with Facebook instead.
Your connected Pages
- Status: each Page shows whether it is connected and subscribed to the webhook. If it reads not yet subscribed, messages will not arrive until you re-connect with the right token scopes.
- AI and bot settings: opens the same sales-agent screen a website site uses, so you can tune the bot for that Page. See AI Sales Agent.
- Alerts: set unhappy-customer alerts for the channel, the same as a site. See Unhappy-customer Alerts.
- Disconnect: stops inbound Messenger chats for that Page.