Connect your WhatsApp number

This is the longest piece of setting Reva up, because half of it happens on Meta's side rather than ours. It is worth reading before you start: two of the choices in it cannot be taken back without disconnecting the number and doing the whole thing again.

Set aside twenty minutes, and have the phone with the WhatsApp Business app on it next to you. You will need it partway through.

Decide these two things first

Do you want your team to keep using WhatsApp on their phones?

Most jewellery businesses do. That option is called coexistence, and Reva shows it as Keeps working in the app: your staff carry on replying from the WhatsApp Business app exactly as they do now, and the same conversations also appear in Reva. The alternative, Cloud API number, means the number runs only through Reva and the app stops being used for it.

Do you want your past chats brought across?

WhatsApp allows this once per number, within 24 hours of connecting. Not once a month — once, ever, unless you disconnect the number and redo this whole flow. You get up to 180 days of one-to-one conversations. Group chats are not included, and attachments only come through for roughly the last two weeks.

If your history matters to you, plan to do it the same day you connect.

Two separate steps, not one question asked twice

This trips people up, so it is worth being plain about.

During setup there is a tick that says Allow past chats to be brought across. That tick only records permission. It asks WhatsApp for nothing.

The request itself is a button on the number's card, after the number is connected. That button is what spends the single attempt.

So ticking the box does not start anything, and it does not use anything up. If you untick it, no import can be started later, and the number's card will show no button for it at all.

You need WhatsApp Business, not ordinary WhatsApp

This catches most shops out, because most of them run the business from the green WhatsApp everybody has.

Reva connects to the WhatsApp Business app — a separate, free app from the same company. Ordinary WhatsApp Messenger cannot be connected, and there is no setting that changes that.

One number cannot be on both apps at once. Whichever app the number is in, that is where it lives.

Moving a number from WhatsApp to WhatsApp Business

If the number your customers already message is on ordinary WhatsApp, you move it across. Your chats come with it. WhatsApp's own steps, which are the ones to follow: How to move your WhatsApp Messenger account to the WhatsApp Business app.

In outline:

1. Back up first. WhatsApp recommends it, and so do we — this is your business's conversation history.
2. Save your contacts to the phone's address book. WhatsApp contacts that exist only inside WhatsApp are lost in the move. In WhatsApp Messenger's settings you can turn WhatsApp contacts off and save them all to the phone first. Do this before anything else; it is the one genuinely destructive part.
3. Install the WhatsApp Business app and open it.
4. Accept the terms. The app finds the number already on the phone — tap it. If it is the wrong number, choose Use a different number.
5. Tap Continue, then Allow, so it can take your chat history and media across.
6. Enter the six-digit code WhatsApp sends by SMS.
7. Fill in your business profile.

Then come back here and connect it to Reva.

If the number is used by a person as well as the business, it is usually worth getting a separate number for the shop instead of moving this one.

Before you start

• The WhatsApp Business app, version 2.24.17 or newer, on the phone that has the number.
• A Facebook or Meta account you can sign in with, which administers the business.
• The number you actually give customers. Not a personal number, and not a new one nobody knows.

You do not need your business verified with Meta first. Verification raises your messaging limits afterwards; it is not a gate on getting started.

In Reva

Open Connections and add a number. Reva prepares the setup and hands you to Meta.

Press Open Meta and choose a number. Meta's own window opens on top of Reva.

In Meta's window

You are on Facebook's screens now, not ours, so what you see is theirs and may change. Meta documents this flow with pictures here: Onboarding WhatsApp Business app users.

In outline: you sign in, choose or create the business account the number belongs to, and enter the number itself.

On your phone

Meta then sends a message to that number, from Facebook Business Account, inside the WhatsApp Business app.

1. Open the app and find that message.
2. Tap Connect in it.
3. Tap Connect to the Business Platform.
4. If you want your history brought across, tap Confirm to allow it.
5. Copy the verification code the message gives you.

Then go back to Meta's window and paste the code.

If you are not holding the phone when you reach this point, the flow waits — but it is the reason to have it beside you before you begin.

Back in Reva

Reva reads back what Meta reported and shows you each number it found, with what can be done with it:

Keeps working in the app — coexistence. Your team carries on in the app, and the conversations appear in Reva too. This is what most shops want.

Cloud API number — the number runs through Reva rather than the app.

Not registered yet — Meta knows this number but has not registered it on the WhatsApp Cloud API; it shows as Verified rather than Registered on Meta's side. This is fixable. Register it in Meta, then run setup again.

Not eligible — this one cannot be connected. It is a different situation from the one above, and no amount of retrying changes it.

Choose the number, decide the past-chats tick, and press Connect selected.

After it connects

The number needs a department before anybody can open its conversations — a number with no department reaches nobody. See Create a department.

If you chose to allow past chats, start the import from the number's card, and remember the 24-hour limit.

When it does not work

Meta's window did not open. Usually a popup blocker. Allow popups for Reva and press Retry Meta setup.

You closed Meta's window by accident. Nothing is lost. Press Retry Meta setup and go again.

The number shows as Not registered yet. Register it on the Cloud API in Meta's own tools, then run setup again. This is the common one, and it is not a fault in Reva.

The number is already on another WhatsApp Business Account. It has to be released from that account before it can be connected here.

You ran out of the 24 hours for past chats. The import cannot be requested any more. Disconnecting and reconnecting the number starts that clock again, but it is a real cost — weigh it against how much the history is worth to you.

Meta's requirements on this page were last checked in September 2026. Meta changes these screens; if what you see differs, Meta's own guide linked above is the one to follow.