Connecting your channels
WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger: what to collect in Meta's console, and what to do when a message never arrives.
Connect your WhatsApp number, start to finish
From a Meta developer account to a live bot, with the four values you need and the one step everybody misses.
Create your Meta app and business portfolio
The developer account, the business portfolio, and the one app all three channels attach to.
Add and verify your phone number
Test number or your own, what the phone number ID actually is, and the limits before business verification.
Generate a permanent token
The system user token, its three permissions, and the one dropdown that decides whether it still works tomorrow.
Connect your Instagram account
Three values, a Page in the middle, and the one field we deliberately do not ask you for.
Connect your Facebook Page
The same three values Instagram needs, one webhook subscription of its own, and the Page-subscription step Meta never mentions.
Webhooks: why messages arrive, and why they sometimes don't
The failure where every light is green and nothing is delivered — once for WhatsApp, once for a Page — and how to prove which side it is on.
Why a follow-up was not sent
The 24-hour messaging window, the notice it leaves in the thread, and why waiting is the correct behaviour rather than a fault.
WhatsApp error messages, decoded
Every message the connect screen can show you, what Meta actually said, and what to do about it.