Business Portfolio, WhatsApp Business Account, phone numbers, verification and the other Meta terms you meet in Avox, explained in plain words.
WhatsApp's business platform is run by Meta, and it comes with its own vocabulary. This page explains each term in plain words and shows where you see it in Avox. You'll mostly meet these during Embedded Signup and when you open your number in Meta's own WhatsApp Manager.
Business Portfolio (your business on Meta - Business ID)
└── WhatsApp Business Account (WABA - WABA ID)
├── Phone number (Phone Number ID, display name, quality, messaging limit)
├── Phone number ...
└── Message templates (shared by every number in the WABA)
In Avox, one connected phone number is one connection. Every connection's page has a Meta identifiers card with the three ids that place it in this tree:
The same page has Open in Meta, which opens the number in Meta's WhatsApp Manager.
Meta's container for a business and its assets - WhatsApp Business Accounts, ad accounts, Pages - and the people who manage them. It used to be called Business Manager, and you may still see that name. Each portfolio has a numeric Business ID.
During Embedded Signup, Meta asks you to select the business portfolio that should own the WhatsApp Business Account.
Use an existing portfolio if you have one. Meta often restricts what a brand-new portfolio, created inside the signup popup, can do at first.
The account that holds your WhatsApp numbers on Meta's platform. Message templates, the account's payment method and its review status live here. A portfolio can own several WABAs, and a WABA can hold several numbers.
See Accounts and numbers for more.
A real phone number registered on WhatsApp's business platform. It has:
+1 555-000-1111,A number can be connected in two ways: alongside the WhatsApp Business app (Existing number (Coexistence) in Avox) or as a number used only through the platform (New number (Bot only)). See Coexistence.
Meta's own check that your business is real, run from your Business Portfolio's settings. It's separate from anything Avox does, and Meta alone decides the outcome.
Verification matters because Meta uses it when deciding how far a number can grow its messaging limit, and what your business profile can show. When you click Check health now on Health, Meta's answer can include a Business verification line, showing whether Meta reports an issue there.
A six-digit PIN that protects the phone number's registration on WhatsApp. Meta asks for it when the number is registered or moved. It's separate from your Avox account's two-factor authentication. Keep the PIN with your other business credentials.
Avox connects to WhatsApp through its own Meta app. In the last screen of Embedded Signup, Review what you share with Avox, Meta lists the Business Portfolio and WhatsApp Business Account you're sharing. Confirming gives Avox permission to work with that account on your behalf: register the connection, receive the account's events, send messages, manage templates and Flows, and read the number's health.
connection_not_ready. When Meta gave the access an end date,
Admins get an email before it's reached (with WhatsApp account alerts on in
Compliance).Meta's hosted API for sending and receiving WhatsApp messages. Avox uses it for everything it does with your number. The Avox API sits in front of it, so your own server can send through your number with an Avox key instead of a Meta token.
Meta's way of telling a business that something happened: a message arrived, a message was delivered or read, a template was approved, the number's quality changed. Avox receives these to keep your dashboard current, and lists every one with its payload on Logs. See Meta webhooks.
WhatsApp lets a business message a person freely for 24 hours after that person last wrote. Outside that window, the business must use a message template that Meta has approved. See Messaging window, Template categories and Templates.
Meta charges for some WhatsApp messages, billed to the WhatsApp Business Account. You don't need a Meta payment method to finish Embedded Signup - add one later in WhatsApp Manager. Avox shows an estimate of these charges on Overview and Billing. See Pricing.
Meta has its own numbered error codes, separate from Avox's. When WhatsApp refuses something, the
Avox API passes Meta's number on as meta_code next to a stable Avox code. See
Meta error codes.
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