What Meta requires to release your number
There are four of them. They are not a Zera requirement: they are the conditions Meta imposes for a number to enter the official WhatsApp API, and no vendor on the market can work around them. Reading takes a minute. Finding out later costs days of waiting.
1. An admin of the company Meta Business Manager
Connecting the number happens through Meta official login, inside a Meta window, and only a Business Manager admin can authorise it. That can be you, or someone at the company doing it together with you on a call.
If your company does not have a Business Manager yet, one is created for free at the moment of connection. What you cannot do is connect without someone who has that access.
2. The number cannot have an active WhatsApp
A phone number exists in one place only. Once it moves to the official API, it leaves the WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business apps on the phone, and the conversation history that lives there does not come along.
You have three paths:
- A new number, one that never had WhatsApp. It is the simplest and the fastest path.
- The number you already use on WhatsApp Business, with coexistence: it keeps working on the phone and the history is preserved. It requires the phone in hand to read a code.
- The number you already use on regular WhatsApp: the account has to be deleted first, and the history is lost.
If the number is already on another API platform (Digisac, Take, 360dialog, Twilio), the migration goes through the same official path and takes minutes. What usually takes time is the release on the old platform side.
3. A live website, and what you sell within the WhatsApp Commerce Policy
Meta checks the company website during the review. A website that is down, or that does not make clear what the company does, is a common reason for rejection.
And there are categories the WhatsApp Commerce Policy simply does not accept, no matter how well the sign-up is done:
- alcoholic beverages
- tobacco and vaping products
- weapons, ammunition and explosives
- weight-loss supplements and products with health claims
- gambling
- high-risk financial services
- medication, drugs and related products
Not sure about your category? The WhatsApp Commerce Policy is the official source, and it counts more than our opinion.
4. Credit card, and it is not for now
This item does not block anything when connecting: your number goes live with no card at all on the Meta account. It shows up here because it exists, in two different places, and it is worth understanding the difference before you need it:
- On your ZeraSync subscription, which is what you sign up for here. The amount and when it is charged are on the pricing table.
- On your own Meta account, and only on the day you start sending messages to people who have not written to you in the last 24 hours. Receiving and replying does not depend on it. That amount does not go through Zera: you pay Meta directly, at their public price.
Missing any of them?
You can solve the first three on your own, and none of them blocks the sign-up: you can sign up today and sort the rest out before connecting. The frequently asked questions explain each case.