Connect WhatsApp Business to Sift to handle 1:1 customer messages in the same inbox as everything else - track inbound, reply, send CSAT prompts after closing, and keep the full conversation history attached to a customer profile.
At a glance
| Inbound: Direct messages (1:1 business ↔ customer) | ✅ |
| Inbound: Text, media, location, contact card | ✅ |
| Inbound: Interactive button replies (CSAT tap-to-rate) | ✅ |
| Inbound: Group messages | ❌ |
| Inbound: Channels (broadcast) | 🔜 Coming soon |
| Outbound: Reply with text / media | ✅ inside 24h window |
| Outbound: Reply with template message | ✅ outside 24h window |
| Outbound: Interactive CSAT button prompt on close | ✅ |
| Multi-WABA + multi-phone-number | ✅ |
| Per-number queue routing | ✅ |
| Auto-reply bots | ✅ |
| Consumer (non-Business) WhatsApp | ❌ |
Set it up
Go to Settings → Integrations → WhatsApp and:
- Connect via Meta Business Platform: sign in as an admin of the Facebook Business Manager that owns the WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) you want to link.
- Pick the WABA(s) Sift should manage.
- Pick which phone numbers within each WABA you want tracked - Sift can be selective.
- Assign each number to a queue (optional) so brand- or region-specific routing works out of the gate.
You need admin access in Meta Business Manager to authorize the connection.
What you can do
Reply with text or media from the inbox - Sift sends via the official WhatsApp Cloud API as the business number the customer messaged. Send a CSAT prompt at close: Sift posts an interactive 1–3 star button message so the customer can rate in one tap; their response comes back as an action update.
Trigger workflows off WhatsApp-specific signals - number, language, business hours, button tap. Route to the right team automatically. Apply auto-reply bots for FAQ patterns or off-hours acknowledgements.
Multi-number brand families work without mixing channels: connect multiple WABAs and multiple phone numbers per WABA, each with its own queue, routing rules, and bot behavior. The inbox shows which number each conversation came in on.
The 24-hour window
Meta restricts how businesses can message customers on WhatsApp. Inside 24 hours of the customer's most recent message, you can send anything - text, media, interactive prompts. Outside 24 hours, only pre-approved template messages.
Sift tracks this window per conversation and surfaces it in the composer so agents know when they're free-typing vs. template-only. Template authoring is done on Meta's side (in the WhatsApp Business Manager); Sift uses your approved templates when an agent picks one from the composer.
Pricing note
Meta charges per conversation on WhatsApp Business (separate from Sift's pricing). Rates depend on category (utility, marketing, service) and country. Check Meta's current pricing - Sift doesn't add a markup.
What Sift ingests
Every message a customer sends to one of your tracked WhatsApp Business numbers becomes an action in the inbox, threaded by (customer phone number, business phone number) so a returning customer hits the same thread.
Supported message types:
- Text
- Media - image, video, audio, document
- Location pins
- Contact cards
- Button replies (when the customer taps a button you sent - e.g. a CSAT rating)
Not supported today
- WhatsApp Groups: Sift handles 1:1 business ↔ customer threads only.
- WhatsApp Channels (broadcast) - coming soon.
- End-to-end-encrypted consumer WhatsApp: Sift requires a WhatsApp Business Account on the Cloud API; the consumer WhatsApp app can't be connected.