Talk to sales
Talk to sales Sign in

Help Getting started

Set up i-Connect, step by step

Last updated:

Six steps take you from a new account to your first WhatsApp message. Home shows them as a setup guide, and each step ticks itself when i-Connect can see it's done.

The setup guide

  • The guide is on Home. It shows only the steps your role can do, so an Agent doesn't see the admin steps.
  • You can't tick a step by hand. If a step isn't ticked, the thing it describes hasn't happened yet.
  • When you first sign in as an Owner or Admin, two short questions ask what kind of business you run and what you want to do first. Your answers add steps, such as adding a product if you want to sell. You can skip them.
  • You can close the guide. Open it again from Help at any time.
  • In a sandbox organisation the same steps work, but nothing reaches WhatsApp.

1. Get approved

Our team reviews every new organisation, because one business's spam can get numbers restricted for everyone. While you wait you can set up your team, contacts and templates. You can't connect a number or send until you're approved. Then our team switches on live sending for your account, and this step ticks.

2. Connect your WhatsApp number

  1. Open Settings → WhatsApp numbers.
  2. Connect with Facebook and follow Meta's window.
  3. Add a payment method for the WhatsApp Business Account in WhatsApp Manager. Meta bills message charges to that account.

The details, including keeping the WhatsApp Business app on the same number, are in Connect your WhatsApp number.

3. Check your time zone and send window

Broadcasts only go out inside your send window, which starts as 09:00 to 21:00. Marketing is limited to 2 messages per contact every 7 days. Press These look right in the guide, or change them in Settings → General.

4. Get a template approved

To start a conversation, WhatsApp requires a template that Meta has approved. Replying within 24 hours of a customer's message doesn't need one.

  1. The quickest route is Industry kits: Use this kit creates templates for your kind of business. Or write your own in Templates.
  2. Submit it. Meta decides, and the status updates on the Templates page.

This step ticks only when a template is Approved. See Templates.

5. Add contacts who agreed to hear from you

Import a CSV in Contacts → Imports, or collect people with a form or a Flow. This step ticks only when a contact has opted in. Contacts with unknown consent don't count, because they won't receive marketing. Read Opt-in and consent rules and Import contacts first.

6. Send your first message

  1. Open an approved template and press Send a test, to send it to one contact. Use your own number first.
  2. Or start a broadcast, which shows reach and cost before anything goes out.

What comes next

Still stuck? Write to support@i-connect.world with your organisation's name and what you see on screen.