> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://onextel-09023014.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Onboarding WhatsApp
> What happens between signing with OneXtel and sending your first WhatsApp message — what you supply, what you decide, and what to have ready.
Onboarding WhatsApp means connecting your business to the WhatsApp Business Platform through
OneXtel, verifying your number with Meta, and configuring how customers opt in and out.
Most of the work is done for you. This page covers the parts that need you: what to supply, what
to decide, and what to have ready for the one session where your involvement is essential.
## What you supply
Your account team will ask for a short set of onboarding details before activation begins —
your company and contact information, and optionally a display picture for the WhatsApp
Business profile. Getting these right up front avoids rework later.
## What gets set up for you
Your account is created and entitled for WhatsApp before you are involved: the account itself,
its users, the channel configuration, and billing.
Link tracking is also configured at this stage if your campaigns will use shortened URLs. See
[URL click callbacks](/api-reference/whatsapp/callback-url-click) for the data it returns.
## Embedded signup
This is the step that needs you. It is a single session of about thirty minutes, scheduled in
your timezone, where your WhatsApp Business Account is created and your number verified with
Meta.
Have all three of these ready before the session starts, or it cannot be completed:
* **Access to your Facebook admin account**
* **Access to your OneXtel account**
* **Access to the phone number you intend to use**, to receive a verification code by SMS or
voice call
The number you verify becomes your WhatsApp Business number. Choose it deliberately — moving to
a different number later means repeating verification.
If signup fails, the error usually comes from Meta rather than OneXtel. Meta documents the
common causes for
[business account creation](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/embedded-signup/errors/#business-manager-account-creation-errors),
[WhatsApp account creation](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/embedded-signup/errors/#whatsapp-business-account-creation-errors),
[phone setup](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/embedded-signup/errors/#phone-setup-errors),
and [phone verification](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/embedded-signup/errors/#phone-verification-errors).
## Your business profile
Once the number is verified, your WhatsApp Business profile is configured from the artefacts you
supplied. This is what customers see when they open a conversation with you, so it is worth
supplying good material rather than placeholders.
| Field | Specification |
| - | - |
| Display picture | 640 × 640 px recommended; PNG, JPG, or JPEG |
| Business profile address | Maximum 256 characters |
| Business description | Maximum 512 characters |
| Business email address | Maximum 128 characters |
| Website URLs | Up to 2 URLs, 256 characters each |
## Opt-in and opt-out
WhatsApp requires customers to be able to opt out of messaging, and configuring this is part of
activation. Two decisions are yours.
**Which categories opt-out blocks.** Opt-out can suppress **Marketing**, **Utility**, or both.
Decide this deliberately — it determines whether a customer who opts out still receives
service messages such as order confirmations, or nothing at all.
**Which keywords customers can use.** Keywords are case-insensitive.
| Purpose | Standard keywords |
| - | - |
| Opt in | `START`, `SUBSCRIBE`, `YES` |
| Opt out | `STOP`, `UNSUBSCRIBE`, `STOP PROMOTIONAL` |
Keep the standards unless you have a reason not to — customers try them by habit, and a keyword
nobody guesses is the same as no opt-out at all.
Opt-in can also be scoped to specific message types, or left unscoped so it applies to
everything. You can manage opt-in and opt-out programmatically once live — see
[Opt-in / opt-out API](/api-reference/whatsapp/opt-in-opt-out).
## Acceptance testing
Before handover, three things are verified end to end:
A template is created and submitted for approval.
An approved template is sent to a real number and arrives.
The send appears correctly in reporting, with its delivery status.
If you want anything else covered — a specific template type, a callback into your own system,
a plugin connection — raise it before this stage rather than after.
## Handover
At handover you receive your portal URL and credentials, plus the documentation set: the
WhatsApp Campaign user manual, the Templates and Send Message API guide, and Meta's message
template category guidelines. Training sessions are scheduled at the same time.
Credentials are sent to individual recipients only, never to a shared or group address. Change
your password on first sign-in — see [Account settings](/guides/platform/account-settings).
## Adding conversational features
Standard activation covers messaging, templates, campaigns, automation triggers, and reporting.
If you also need **chatbot** capability — conversational AI, automated response flows,
context-aware conversations — or **live agent** handling with bot-to-human handoff, an agent
dashboard, queue management, and multi-agent routing, these are an additional layer on top of
the base setup. Raise it during the kick-off call, since it changes the scope and timeline of
onboarding.
## Next steps
Understand the categories before you write.
Build and send your first campaign.
So delivery reports and replies reach your systems.
Send from Salesforce, MoEngage, LeadSquared, and more.
This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.