WhatsApp · 6 min read · Savina Bansal
Keep the WhatsApp Business app and use the API on one number
You no longer have to give up the WhatsApp Business app to use the API. What coexistence keeps, what it changes on your phone, and how to connect.
Building the platform this article is about
For years the choice was blunt. Keep your number on the free WhatsApp Business app, with its one phone and its broadcast limits, or move it to the API and lose the app on that number. Plenty of businesses stayed on the app for exactly that reason: the owner answers from their phone, and the regulars know that number.
Meta now allows both at once. It calls it coexistence: the same number stays on the WhatsApp Business app on the phone and works through the API at the same time. Ohanvi connects numbers this way as a third option, beside a new number and a number already on the API.
What you keep
The phone keeps working. You can still read and answer chats on the WhatsApp Business app, and the messages you send from the phone stay free.
Your history comes with you. When you connect, choose “Share chat history” and the last six months of chats come into Ohanvi’s Team Inbox. Your phone contacts are imported too.
Both sides stay in step. Messages sent from the phone show in the Team Inbox labelled “From phone”, so your team sees the whole conversation, not just the half that went through Ohanvi.
And you gain what the API adds: a shared inbox for the team, chatbot flows, broadcasts to opted-in customers beyond the app’s limits, AI replies, and the contact record behind every chat. Ohanvi sends up to 20 messages a second from a coexistence number.
What changes on the phone
Meta sets a few rules for coexistence, and it is better to know them before you connect.
Group chats and calls stay on the phone only. They do not come into Ohanvi.
On the phone, broadcast lists become read-only, and disappearing messages, view-once and live location are turned off for one-to-one chats.
Linked devices, such as WhatsApp Web and desktop, sign out once. Link them again afterwards. WhatsApp for Windows and WearOS will not work with the number.
Open the app on your phone at least once every 14 days, or the connection stops.
Before you start
The number must be on the WhatsApp Business app, version 2.24.17 or newer. If it is on personal WhatsApp, move it to the Business app on the phone first; your chats move with it.
Have the phone in your hand: you will scan a code on it. And use Ohanvi in a browser for this step, because the connection runs through a Facebook window.
Connecting, step by step
1. In Ohanvi, open WhatsApp → Configuration, press Add number, and choose WhatsApp Business app.
2. In the Facebook window, log in and pick your business. Choose “Connect your existing WhatsApp Business app” and enter your number.
3. On your phone, open the message from WhatsApp and scan the QR code shown on screen.
4. When asked, choose “Share chat history”.
Ohanvi then shows the import as it happens: your contacts first, then the last six months of chats. The number appears in WhatsApp settings with a Business app badge.
If the connection stops
If the phone goes more than 14 days without opening the app, or the number is disconnected on the phone, WhatsApp settings in Ohanvi shows that it is disconnected from the Business app, with a Reconnect button. Nothing in Ohanvi is lost while it is down: contacts, history and templates stay where they are.
Keep reading
Questions this answers
- Can I use the WhatsApp Business app and the WhatsApp API on the same number?
- Yes. Meta’s coexistence lets one number stay on the WhatsApp Business app (version 2.24.17 or newer) and work through the API at the same time. Ohanvi connects numbers this way and brings in your contacts and the last six months of chats.
- What stops working on my phone with coexistence?
- Group chats and calls stay on the phone and do not come into Ohanvi. On the phone, broadcast lists become read-only, and disappearing, view-once and live location messages are turned off for one-to-one chats. WhatsApp for Windows and WearOS will not work with the number.
- Do I need to open the WhatsApp Business app regularly?
- Yes. Open it on the phone at least once every 14 days, or the connection stops.
