It seems that the usual use case when using Whatsapp business api is customers initiating conversations with a business from their personal Whatsapp account, and the business can reply with automated messages such as order status. But does it support the use case of customers using a chatbot on a website, then escalating to human support with agents who are using Whatsapp business? In other words, the API is being used to communicate with agents of the business, rather than their customers.

There seems to be a limitation that the Whatsapp user has to send the first message before the business can reply. This makes sense for the first use case where a customer will usually be initiating something like getting an order update, but not for the case where you want to send a question from a customer in the chatbot to the agent in Whatsapp.

Whatsapp business does support the idea of multiple agents dealing with conversations, but can these conversations be created with the API as if coming from customers?

I’m having trouble with my WhatsApp Cloud API setup. After several tests, it appears that outbound messages show a status of "accepted" in the API response, but the recipient phone never actually receives them. I also never see two gray ticks in WhatsApp—only one tick.

My Setup:

1. WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) ID: <WABA_ID>

2. Phone Number ID: <PHONE_NUMBER_ID>

3. App ID: <APP_ID>

4. Webhook URL: https://<MY_DOMAIN>/webhook (confirmed reachable).

When I run this command (example below), I get a 200 OK response with "message_status": "accepted":

bash

curl -X POST \\ "https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/\<PHONE_NUMBER_ID\>/messages" \\ -H "Authorization: Bearer \<ACCESS_TOKEN\>" \\ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \\ -d '{ "messaging_product": "whatsapp", "to": "\<RECIPIENT_NUMBER\>", "type": "template", "template": { "name": "promo_prueba", "language": { "code": "es_MX" } } }' 

API Response:

{ "messaging_product": "whatsapp", "contacts": [ { "input": "<RECIPIENT_NUMBER>", "wa_id": "521XXXX" } ], "messages": [ { "id": "wamid...", "message_status": "accepted" } ] } 

Despite the "accepted" status, the message never appears on the recipient phone. Also, when I try to send a WhatsApp message from another phone to this new Cloud API number, it only shows one gray tick (never delivered).

What I’ve Tried So Far:

1. Webhook / Event Subscription

   • Confirmed subscribed_fields are ["messages", "statuses"].

   • Webhook works for my “test” number (a Meta-provided test number), but not for this newly added business phone.

2. Verified the Phone Number

   • The Graph API shows "code_verification_status": "VERIFIED".

   • Within Meta Business Suite, I see the number listed with a status that appears connected.

3. Removed & Re-Added the Number

   • I tried disconnecting the number in the Business Manager, waiting a bit, and re-verifying. Same result: messages are “accepted” but not delivered.

4. Checked for Conflicts

   • The number isn’t being used in a personal WhatsApp or another WhatsApp API.

Symptoms / Question:

• Outbound: “Accepted” by the API, no actual delivery.

• Inbound: A different phone sending a message to this Cloud API number only gets one gray tick—never delivered.

Has anyone dealt with a partially activated or “stuck” WhatsApp Cloud API number? Any advice on what else to check?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Let me know if you need more logs (with sensitive info removed) or additional details.

My company portfolio has 2 WABAs, both have at least 2k conversarions per month (rated as high quality) and we need to add another one due to business purposes, but the ticket that you create to ask for an increase just says "Hi,
Thank you for reaching out regarding your phone number limits for your business account.
We must inform you that your account is not eligible for a manual increase at this limit. You may gradually increase your phone number limit through continued use of the platform. For more details on how these limits work, feel free to check out our documentation here - (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/phone-numbers/#registered-number-limits)." and there is no real reason why, and just creating another business portfolio for us it doesnt seem the right way to do it.

I need the phone status to be able to be changed at any time so that I can communicate with my customers there.

I recently attempted to delete a phone number from one WhatsApp Business Platform Account (WABA) and assign it to another WABA. However, when trying to use the deleted phone number with the new WABA, I encountered the error: 'Please double check that this phone number is registered on a WhatsApp Business app account.' Could anyone explain why this happens? Is there any way to resolve this issue or reuse the deleted phone number in a new WABA?