WhatsApp notifications

Why WhatsApp

Customers reply to WhatsApp at 3× the rate they reply to SMS. WhatsApp Business API lets Wemu send:

• Booking confirmations — when a customer books an appointment
• Appointment reminders — 24h + 1h before, cuts no-shows by ~40%
• Order status updates — pending → approved → shipping → done
• Payment receipts — instead of email
• Abandoned cart nudges

Prerequisites

• A Facebook Business Manager account (free)
• A dedicated WhatsApp Business phone number — can't reuse your personal WhatsApp number, and can't be in use on the WhatsApp consumer app
• Business verification — Meta will ask for business registration documents; 1-3 days to approve

Connect WhatsApp

1. Tap Connect WhatsApp Business
2. Log in to Facebook Business Manager
3. Pick the WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) to use — create a new one if needed
4. Choose the phone number
5. Meta sends a 6-digit verification code — enter it
6. Approve the default message templates (confirmation, reminder, update) — Meta reviews these in ~24 hours

Message templates

Meta requires every proactive message to use a pre-approved template. Wemu ships with:

• `booking_confirmation` — "Hi {{name}}, your {{service}} with {{staff}} at {{time}} is confirmed."
• `booking_reminder` — "Reminder: your appointment is tomorrow at {{time}}."
• `order_status` — "Order #{{order_id}} is now {{status}}."
• `payment_receipt` — "Thanks for your payment of {{amount}}. Receipt: {{link}}"

You can add custom templates in the WhatsApp Manager; we auto-import them.

Costs

Meta charges per conversation started (starting from $0.005 in some markets). Utility messages (reminders, receipts) are much cheaper than marketing messages. See [WhatsApp pricing](https://business.whatsapp.com/products/platform-pricing).

Two-way messaging

When a customer replies to a WhatsApp notification, the reply shows up in the Wemu Messages inbox — reply from web or the POS, just like email.

Disconnecting

Settings → Integrations → WhatsApp → Disconnect. Messages stop going out; incoming replies are archived.