Connect WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram
Connect WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram
Not verified live: this guide has not been followed end to end against the live provider.
You connect a WhatsApp Business number, or a Facebook Page together with its Instagram account, so that customer messages arrive in the inbox.
Who: an admin. Permission: channels.manage.
Before you start
- Have a Facebook account that manages the Facebook Page you want to connect. For WhatsApp, the account needs access to your WhatsApp Business account through Meta Business Suite.
- For Instagram, have a professional Instagram account linked to that Facebook Page. Yedran messages Instagram through the Page, so an unlinked account cannot be connected.
- Know which workspace the channel serves. The channel answers from that workspace’s knowledge base, so the workspace needs one. The console says Create this workspace’s knowledge base first. when it has none.
- Allow pop-ups for the console. The Facebook sign-in opens in a separate window.
- You do not register a Meta app or paste any app credentials. Yedran’s platform administrator sets those up once for the whole deployment.
Steps
- To open the channel list, select System in the sidebar, then the Channels tab. If you don’t see System, open the account menu, select Organisation, then the Channels tab. You see one card per channel type.
- To connect Messenger and Instagram, select Connect on the Messenger + Instagram card. To connect WhatsApp, select Connect on the WhatsApp card. If a channel of that type exists, select the button on the card that adds another channel of that type instead. The Connect channel dialog opens on the form for that type.
- In Workspace, check the workspace the channel serves. A channel cannot move to another workspace from the console.
- In Channel name, type a label for your inbox, for example Support EN. The name is only a label, and the Connect with Facebook button stays unavailable until you enter one.
- Read the box titled Before you click — two things that trip people up. It tells you that the Facebook window starts on your personal business account, which usually does not own the Page. If the list of Pages or Instagram accounts comes up empty, switch the business account at the top of that window.
- Select Connect with Facebook. The button reads Waiting for authorization… while a Facebook window opens on Meta’s consent screen.
- In the Facebook window, sign in and approve access. For Messenger and Instagram, pick the Facebook Page. For WhatsApp, pick your WhatsApp Business account and phone number. The window closes and the form shows Successfully connected with Meta.
- Select Close. The channel appears as a card in the channel list.
- Check the card’s status. When Meta confirms the subscription, Yedran switches a Messenger and Instagram channel on and its card reads Active. A WhatsApp channel starts disabled, so select Enable on its card.
- To confirm the channel is live, select Test on its card. The console reads Connection successful when it can reach the channel.
If the Connect with Facebook button is greyed out and shows a Set up needed badge, the deployment has no Meta app registered yet. Ask your platform administrator to finish the one-time setup.
If your Facebook account manages more than one Page, the console names the candidate Pages in an error and shows a Facebook Page ID field. Paste the ID of the Page you want and select Connect with Facebook again.
If a Messenger and Instagram channel stays Disabled after connecting, Meta refused the subscription. The channel keeps the reason. Select Enable on its card to try the subscription again.
What you get from one connection
A single connection of Messenger + Instagram creates one channel that serves both platforms. Which platform a message came in on is decided per message.
- Select Configure on the card to see what the connection bound. The Messenger Page section shows the Page ID. An Instagram account ID row appears only when the Page has a linked professional Instagram account.
- A Page without a linked Instagram account connects as Messenger only. That is a normal result, not an error.
- WhatsApp is a separate channel with its own card, connected through Meta’s sign-up window.
- A section named Advanced — manual setup (only if your administrator asks) on the WhatsApp form holds manual token fields. Leave it closed unless your technical administrator asks you to use it.
Result
To check that a channel works, send it a message and open the inbox.
- For Messenger and Instagram, send a message to your Facebook Page or Instagram account. For WhatsApp, send a message to the connected number.
- The message appears as a conversation in the workspace. Lucía answers according to her mode, and, when she is missing a verified fact, first tries to help, then offers a person and hands over when the customer accepts. See Choose how much Lucía does, How Lucía decides and Handle a handover.
- The channel’s card shows Active and the last message time under Last message:.
When the 24-hour reply window closes
On WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, a free-form reply is allowed for 24 hours after the customer’s last message. Yedran measures the window from the customer’s most recent message in that conversation.
- When the window is closed, Yedran does not send the reply. Lucía hands the conversation over to your team, and the handover reason reads Messaging window closed.
- A message that could not be sent is marked failed with the reason
window_closed. - On Messenger and Instagram, a team member who opens such a conversation sees the banner Messaging window closed — the customer must message you again before you can reply.
- To write to a WhatsApp customer first, the console states that WhatsApp only lets a business start a conversation with an approved template. Select Configure on the WhatsApp card, then Manage templates, to open the templates dialog.
Reconnect a channel
To refresh a Meta channel, select Configure on its card, then Reconnect this channel. Reconnect updates the same channel with a fresh token and creates no second channel.
Use Reconnect this channel when a Meta channel stops receiving or sending. Yedran does not refresh a Meta token on its own, so reconnecting is the way to recover.
Limits
- A Meta channel uses Yedran’s one Meta app for the whole deployment. You cannot enter your own app credentials on the channel form.
- The Facebook window asks for exactly what the deployment’s Meta setup requests. If it asks for an Instagram account when you wanted Messenger only, the Meta setup is what has to change, not this screen. Ask your platform administrator.
- A channel serves one workspace. A channel moves to another workspace only with the workspace split tool, run by your platform operator.
- Meta charges for some message types. The console notes that marketing templates are reviewed more strictly and usually cost more per message. Those charges are between your business and Meta.
- If your organisation’s trial or subscription ends unpaid, Lucía hands conversations over and only owners can sign in. See The 30-day trial and what happens when it ends.