How the WhatsApp Business Calling API works on Meta's side - call settings, customer-initiated calls, permission requests, call events - and every place Avox lets you use it.
The WhatsApp Business Calling API lets customers call a business's WhatsApp number from the WhatsApp app, the same way they call friends. This page explains how calling works on WhatsApp's side, and where each part shows up in Avox. To turn it on, see Calling; for your call history, see Calls.
Calling is switched on or off for each phone number, in the number's call settings on Meta's side. When an Admin flips the Calling switch on a connection's page in Avox, Avox updates that setting with Meta for you - you don't need to change anything in WhatsApp Manager yourself. The switch only stays on once Meta confirms the change. Meta decides which numbers are eligible to use calling.
With calling on for a number:
WhatsApp protects customers from unwanted calls: before a business calls someone, the customer must agree. A business asks with a call permission request - a special interactive message in the customer's chat. The customer then chooses whether to allow calls from your business, right in the chat.
By default the request reads:
We'd like to call you about your recent conversation - is that okay?
Sending a request needs calling turned on for the number ("Enable calling on this connection first." otherwise). In the dashboard, anyone who can Reply in the Inbox and See calls can send one - by default, every Admin and Manager. See Permissions.
A permission request is a regular WhatsApp message, so it follows the 24-hour customer service window: send it while the customer has messaged you within the last 24 hours. Outside the window, Avox shows "It's been over 24 hours since this contact last messaged you - send a template to reopen the conversation." For that customer, send an approved template of the Calling permission request type, or any approved template - once they reply, the window is open again.
Get a Calling permission request template approved before you need it. It's the one way to ask for permission from customers who haven't written in the last 24 hours.
Calls happen over the customer's internet connection inside WhatsApp, not as a regular phone call.
As a call progresses, Meta sends call events to the number's webhook under the calls field. Avox
receives them and logs each one on Calls:
When WhatsApp reports a missed call, it shows as Missed in your log. Each call also shows its
Direction: Inbound when the customer called you, Outbound when your business called
them. For the full event format, with an example, see Meta webhooks.
Every call event is also listed on Logs under the event type calls.
The call log on Calls shows Contact, Direction, Status, Duration and When for each call. Narrow it down with:
Clear filters resets them. To see one customer's calls, click Calls at the top of their Inbox conversation, or on their row in Contacts. Clicking a call opens the contact's profile, whose Calls tab lists their call history.
Once Calling is on for your number, customers call you from their WhatsApp chat with you, the way they'd call anyone.
The Send request button on Calls and Request a call in the Inbox use the default wording. For your own words, use an automation's Request a call step or a Calling permission request template.
Check three things: calling is on for the number ("Enable calling on this connection first."), the customer has written in the last 24 hours, and you have the Reply in the Inbox and See calls permissions. For a customer outside the window, send a Calling permission request template.
The Calls page follows your Switchboard's most recently connected number. Turn calling on for that number to use the page.
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