Coexistence or API-Only: Choosing How to Connect Your Number

• Your customers already message you on the WhatsApp Business app and you want to keep chatting from your phone: choose coexistence.
• You have a number that is not on WhatsApp at all and you want it dedicated to SmartEngage: choose API-only.
• Your number is on WhatsApp and you are not sure: choose coexistence. It is the option that keeps your choices open.

Coexistence is for a number that is already signed in to the WhatsApp Business app, where you want to carry on using it there as well as in SmartEngage.

The app keeps working on the same phone afterwards, with your chats, contacts and history intact. SmartEngage sends your campaigns through the API, and you can still reply to customers from the app.

To prove you own the number, Meta talks to the app on your phone. In the WhatsApp Business app you tap Connect to the Business Platform, then either scan a QR code or enter a code Meta shows you. For that to work:

• The phone has to be with you while you connect.
• The WhatsApp Business app must be version 2.24.17 or newer. An older version cannot complete the link.
• The number must be on the WhatsApp Business app. A number on the ordinary WhatsApp app has to be moved to the Business app first.

What you share: linking this way shares your business profile, contacts and the last six months of chat history with the connection. You keep full access to the app afterwards.

API-only, which SmartEngage's guide calls connecting a brand-new number, is for a number that is not signed in to WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business anywhere. Meta creates the business portfolio and WhatsApp Business account as you go, and verifies the number with a six-digit code sent by SMS or a phone call.

Afterwards the number becomes a WhatsApp Business account that is used from SmartEngage, not from an app on a phone. You send and reply from SmartEngage.

The important part: a number connected this way can never be used in the WhatsApp Business app again. That is the cost of this route, and it is permanent.

Because the number must not be on WhatsApp anywhere, Meta refuses one that is still signed in. That refusal is a safeguard, not an error to work around.

• Starting point: coexistence uses a number already in the WhatsApp Business app; API-only uses a number not on WhatsApp anywhere.
• Proof of ownership: coexistence uses a QR code or code inside the app; API-only uses a code by SMS or call.
• App version: coexistence needs 2.24.17 or newer; API-only does not use the app.
• After connecting: coexistence keeps the app working alongside SmartEngage; API-only is used from SmartEngage only.
• Chat history: coexistence shares the last six months with the connection; API-only starts fresh.
• Going back: coexistence leaves the app in place; an API-only number cannot return to the app.

Meta's message charges apply either way, paid directly to Meta. SmartEngage adds no markup on either route.

Once you are connected, the Setup line on SmartEngage's Connect page shows which route your number took: Coexistence — app + API, or API only.

The choice is not made by a switch in SmartEngage. It is made inside Meta's window, on the screen where you pick the phone number.

That screen opens with the Phone number list set to Enter a new phone number, and the country box on a default. Both are defaults, not suggestions. If you want to keep the app, open the list and pick your existing number. Leaving it on Enter a new phone number starts the other flow.

If you realise you have picked the wrong number on the next screen, choose Back and change it rather than carrying on. Closing Meta's window before the end also cancels the connection without saving anything, which is a safe way out if you are unsure.

Choose coexistence if:

• Customers already know and message this number.
• Staff reply from the WhatsApp Business app on a phone, and you want that to continue.
• You want your existing chats and contacts to stay where they are.

Choose API-only if:

• You have a spare number, or are getting one, just for campaigns and customer messaging.
• Your team will work from SmartEngage's inbox rather than from a phone.
• You are comfortable that the number will never go back into the WhatsApp Business app.

Disconnecting stops SmartEngage sending on your behalf. It does not delete your WhatsApp Business Account, your number or your templates at Meta, and you can connect again at any time by running Meta's signup again.

What disconnecting cannot do is reverse an API-only connection. Once a number has been connected as a new number, it stays out of the WhatsApp Business app. That is why this is the one decision worth making slowly.

For what disconnecting keeps and removes, read How to Refresh or Disconnect Your WhatsApp Connection.

Get everything ready first with Before You Connect WhatsApp: What You Need.

Then follow How to Connect WhatsApp to SmartEngagestep by step.