Read and reply to WhatsApp messages

Customer messages to your WhatsApp Business number arrive in the WhatsApp tab under Inbox. A team line belongs to the whole workspace, so every member sees the same conversations and can reply to them.

Connect the number

Only an admin can connect a number, and it needs details from your Meta app. To connect:

1. Open Admin, click Workspace Channels, and find the WhatsApp Business card.
2. Enter the Phone Number ID, the WhatsApp Business Account ID, and optionally a Display number.
3. Enter the Access token. The card notes it should be a long-lived System User token, since a temporary one expires in 24 hours.
4. Under Assigned to, keep the first option, which is the team line, or pick one member.
5. Click Connect. The card shows Active and Access token stored.

A line assigned to one member is still the company’s number, and an admin can hand it to somebody else at any time. Its conversations show to that member alone: nobody else in the workspace reads them, admins included. A team line shows to everyone.

To change the details later, click Edit on the line’s card and click Save; leave the token blank to keep the current one. The trash button on the card removes that line and its stored conversations. A member who opens the tab before a number is connected sees a note that an admin sets it up and what it needs.

Find a conversation

The list shows one row per customer number, headed by the profile name or the number. Each row carries an unread dot and the time of the last message. Type in Filter conversations to narrow the list. The chip beside it cycles through In CRM and Not in CRM, so you can list conversations without a record link. An empty list says conversations appear the moment a customer messages your number.

If your workspace has more than one number you can read, a list of numbers appears to the left of the conversations. All numbers shows every conversation together, with a number label on each row so you can see which of your numbers a customer messaged. Picking one number narrows the list to it and drops the labels, and the head of an open conversation names the number it came in on. Each entry shows how many unread conversations it holds. A number assigned to one person appears only for that person, so an admin who reads only the team line sees no list at all.

New messages appear on their own; there is no sync button, because WhatsApp delivers them to Mesy as they arrive. Opening a conversation clears its unread dot.

See who a customer is

Your admin enables Suggest under WhatsApp phone linking in Admin, Workspace Channels. Suggestions start off.

When you open a conversation, Mesy checks international phone numbers in the configured identity fields for people you can see. If exactly one record matches, a Suggested chip offers Accept and Dismiss. Accept links that record if you still have permission to edit it. Dismissed matches stay dismissed for you, including after new messages.

Local numbers and ambiguous matches need manual linking. On an unlinked conversation, click Link and search for the record. Add to CRM stages the sender as a proposed contact for you to approve in Approvals.

A linked conversation shows the record as a chip; click it to open the record. Replace searches for a different record, and Unlink this record removes the link. These controls appear when you can edit the linked record; a replacement also requires edit permission for the new record. An inaccessible or deleted record appears as Linked record unavailable.

A linked conversation also shows on the record itself. Open the record and click Conversations to read every chat linked to it, and Open in Inbox to come back here. When you can read more than one WhatsApp number, each WhatsApp row there carries the label of the number it is on. A phone match waiting on you shows there too, under Suggested, for you alone.

Turning suggestions off keeps existing links and your dismissals. Unlinking a conversation stops future phone suggestions for it. Use Link to choose a record again.

Read messages

Text shows as bubbles. Images show inline; other files show as a row with the filename. A message type Mesy can’t render shows its type in square brackets. Outgoing messages carry a status mark for sent, delivered, read or failed; hovering a failed mark shows the error.

Reply

WhatsApp lets a business send a free-form reply only within 24 hours of the customer’s last message, and Mesy applies the same rule before sending. To reply:

1. Open the conversation.
2. Type in the Type a reply box. Enter sends; Shift+Enter starts a new line.
3. Click Send. Your message appears with its status mark.

Under the box, Mesy says when the reply window closes. Once it has closed, the box is replaced by a notice explaining that WhatsApp won’t deliver a reply. You can’t start a conversation from Mesy: the customer must message you first. Open WhatsApp in the header opens your own WhatsApp to that number, not this conversation.

Use the AI panel

Click Mesy WhatsApp to open the panel headed Mesy AI · WhatsApp. It lists Unread customer conversations and any AI proposals waiting on you, or says All clear in WhatsApp. Its Add to CRM tool stages the selected unlinked conversation, the same as the button in the thread head.