Running one WhatsApp number across a whole team
Two staff sharing one phone is the problem that pushes most stores onto the API in the first place.
A shared inbox is one WhatsApp number that several people answer from their own accounts, with each conversation owned by one of them at a time. It is the reason most growing stores move from the free WhatsApp Business app to the API: the app is tied to a device, and a device cannot be in two people's hands.
What changes when you move
| WhatsApp Business app | Shared inbox on the API | |
|---|---|---|
| People answering | One device | Everyone, from their own login |
| Who owns a chat | Whoever has the phone | Assigned explicitly |
| Automation on store events | No | Yes |
| Approved templates | No | Yes — needed outside the 24h window |
| Broadcast reach | 256 per list, and only to people who saved your number | Governed by your messaging tier |
That last row is worth dwelling on, because the 256 figure gets quoted as an API limit constantly. It is not. Per WhatsApp's own FAQ, a broadcast list in the app holds up to 256 contacts and only reaches people who have your number saved. On the API, reach is governed by your messaging tier instead.
The three habits that prevent collisions
- Assign before you reply. An unassigned chat is everybody's and therefore nobody's. Two people answering the same customer is the failure mode a shared inbox exists to prevent.
- Use statuses honestly. Open means someone is on it, pending means it is waiting on someone, resolved means done. A queue where everything is "open" tells you nothing.
- Leave internal notes rather than remembering. The colleague picking this up tomorrow cannot read your mind.
What automation should own, and what it should not
The useful division is by whether the answer is knowable in advance.
- Automation owns: greeting, routing, collecting order numbers, answering documented policy questions, out-of-hours replies, order and shipping updates.
- People own: anything emotional, anything about money outside a standard flow, anything involving a photo, and anything where being wrong is expensive.
Automation should also do the tedious part of handover: assigning to the right team and leaving a note with what it collected. See handing a chat from bot to human.
Routing to the right team
An Assign Chat step can send a conversation to a team rather than a person, which is almost always what you want — an individual is on holiday, a team is not.
A workable structure for a small store is two teams: orders and everything else. Adding more teams than you have people creates queues nobody watches.
Assign to a team, not a person, in automations. A flow that assigns to one named colleague breaks silently the week they are away, and nothing in the system tells you the queue has stopped moving.
The 24-hour window is a team problem too
Your team can reply freely only while the customer service window is open — 24 hours from the customer's last message, resetting each time they write, per Meta's documentation. After that, free text fails and only an approved template will send.
The operational consequence: a chat left over the weekend may not be answerable on Monday. If your team works Monday to Friday, Friday evening enquiries are the ones to clear before you leave. Otherwise Monday's reply needs a template, and most stores do not have one written for "sorry for the delay".
It is worth having one approved for exactly that. A simple utility template that re-opens a conversation is cheap insurance, and it is charged only once, since the customer's reply reopens the window.
Measuring the team, not the bot
Two numbers matter more than message volume: how long customers wait for a first human reply, and how many conversations a person actually resolves. Both live in your analytics; message counts flatter automation and tell you nothing about service.
You can also ask customers directly — a rating question at the end of a resolved conversation feeds customer satisfaction scores.
A sensible starting setup
- Two teams: orders, and general.
- An automation that greets, offers three options and assigns.
- An automation that cancels pending questions when a human replies.
- An out-of-hours reply that sets the conversation to pending.
- A rule that Friday's chats are cleared before the weekend.
That is enough structure for a team of two to six people, and it can be built in an afternoon.
Frequently asked questions
Can several people use one WhatsApp Business number?
Not on the free WhatsApp Business app, which is tied to a device. On the API, a shared inbox lets everyone answer the same number from their own login, with each conversation assigned to one person.
Is the 256-contact broadcast limit an API limit?
No. It is a WhatsApp Business app limit, and it also only reaches people who have saved your number. On the API, reach is governed by your messaging tier.
Should an automation assign chats to a person or a team?
A team. A flow that assigns to one named colleague breaks silently the week they are away, with nothing to tell you the queue has stopped moving.
What happens to a chat left over the weekend?
The 24-hour customer service window closes, so free text will fail on Monday and only an approved template will send. Clear Friday's chats, or keep a utility template approved for re-opening conversations.