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WhatsApp is where leads actually answer, and it is also where careless automation gets numbers banned. Nudge supports two kinds of WhatsApp connections and treats them very differently on purpose.

Adding a number

Settings → WhatsApp lists every number your workspace can send from. + Add number asks which of the two kinds you are connecting:
  • Personal number pairs a handset by scanning a QR code, the same way WhatsApp Web does.
  • Cloud API number registers a number you already hold in Meta Business Manager.
Hovering a row reveals Test, which sends a real message so you can confirm the connection before a campaign relies on it, and the control to remove the number.

Personal numbers

A rep’s own WhatsApp number, paired by QR. This is the warm lane: automated follow-ups and one-to-one conversations that look and feel like a person texting, because the number belongs to a person. To keep those numbers safe, Nudge paces them automatically. Admins set this once in Settings → WhatsApp and every automated send obeys it:
  • Min gap between sends per number, so messages trickle out at human speed.
  • Randomize up to, which jitters that gap so the rhythm is not machine-perfect.
  • Max per hour and Max per day per number, on top of the gap.
  • Working hours: automated messages hold until the owner’s business hours. A 3am follow-up closes no deals.
  • Pause automation after a reply, in days. An inbound message cancels that contact’s queued automated sends.
One setting is worth knowing by name: Send manual messages instantly. With it on, a message a rep types by hand skips every gate above and goes straight out. That is why your own reply lands immediately while an automated one waits its turn. Live conversation should never sit in a queue. There is also Capture chats sent from your phone, which pulls messages a rep sends from the WhatsApp app on their own device into the contact’s timeline.

Cloud API numbers

For traffic that should not ride on a personal number, connect an official Meta number through the WhatsApp Cloud API. Meta enforces its own limits on this lane, so Nudge does not add pacing of its own. A Cloud API row carries two Meta identifiers, the phone-number ID and the business account ID that owns it. Both sit behind the arrow next to the number: you need them when you first wire an account up, and almost never afterwards. The business account ID is the one that decides where a template’s approval counts, so it is worth checking when a template works on one number and not another. Meta’s one hard rule on this lane: a free-form message only delivers within 24 hours of the contact’s last message to you. Anything outside that window, including all first-touch outreach, must be an approved template message.

Approved templates for cold outreach

Nudge handles the approval workflow from the template editor. Open a WhatsApp template and use the Meta template section:
  1. Submit for approval. Nudge sends the template body to Meta for review. Review usually takes minutes to two days.
  2. Watch the status. The section shows where things stand for each business account and language: in review, approved, or rejected with Meta’s reason. Approvals arrive automatically; Refresh status checks on demand.
  3. Send as usual. Once approved, nothing else changes. Any send that uses this template from a Cloud API number just works: triggers, bulk sends, and a one-off message to a single contact with the template picked in the composer. Inside the 24-hour window Nudge sends your current text directly; outside it, Meta delivers the approved version.
Two things to know:
  • Approval freezes the wording. Editing the template after approval does not change what cold sends deliver. The editor shows a “body changed since approval” notice, and clicking Resubmit puts the new wording through review. Until it is approved, cold sends keep using the previously approved text.
  • Approvals are per business account and per language. A template approved for one WhatsApp Business Account has to be submitted again to use it on a number belonging to another, and each language of a multi-language template is reviewed on its own.
  • Picking a template in the composer sends that template. If you choose one and then edit the words in the box, your edits are not what goes out: the message is sent as the template, so the contact gets the template’s current wording (and, outside the 24-hour window, the approved wording). To send something you have typed yourself, clear the template picker first.
A cold send with no approved template is rejected by Meta and shows as failed on the contact’s timeline, so nothing is silently dropped. Approved templates are text-only for now: a template with an image or document attached can be submitted once the attachment is removed, and free-form messages inside the 24-hour window still carry media as usual.

Which number sends what

The sending number is chosen per action. A trigger’s WhatsApp action set to Each lead’s owner sends from the owner’s connected number, so the lead hears from the same person who will pick up the conversation. Bulk sends can override with one fixed sender.

Media

Templates can attach an image or a document (PDF, spreadsheet) from the shared asset library; the message body becomes the caption. See Templates.