Create a WhatsApp chatbot (Coexistence)

Coexistence is a WhatsApp connection type that runs one business phone number in the WhatsApp Business app and in SendPulse at the same time. You keep the app, the chat history, and the number your customers already know, and SendPulse adds chatbot flows, campaigns, and statistics to the same number.

For example, a travel agency whose agents answer customers from the WhatsApp Business app during the day can let a chatbot collect trip requests at night and on weekends. The agents keep working from the phone, and the chatbot works on the same number.

In this article, we will explain what Coexistence is, what to check before you start, what changes in the WhatsApp Business app, how to connect the number, and how to fix the errors the connection wizard shows.

Benefits and use cases

With Coexistence, you can:

• Keep the WhatsApp Business app, your chat history, and your team's way of working while a chatbot answers on the same number.
• Send flows, campaigns with message templates, and auto-replies from SendPulse without deleting the account in the app.
• See the messages your team sends from the app and the messages the chatbot sends in one chat in SendPulse.
• Transfer up to six months of individual chats from the app to SendPulse.
• Disconnect the number from SendPulse at any time and keep using the WhatsApp Business app as before.

Here's how businesses can use it:

• A travel agency answers customers from the app during working hours, and a chatbot qualifies new requests and books a callback at night and on weekends.
• A dental clinic sends appointment reminders and confirmation requests from SendPulse using message templates, while its receptionists keep answering questions from the app.
• An online store keeps its catalog and orders in the WhatsApp Business app and lets a chatbot answer questions about order status, send delivery updates, and request reviews on the same number.

Basics

WhatsApp gives businesses two products, and Coexistence connects them. The WhatsApp Business app is the app on your phone that your team uses to chat with customers. The WhatsApp Business Platform is the part of WhatsApp that providers such as SendPulse use to run chatbots, campaigns, and integrations. Without Coexistence, a phone number works in only one of them. To connect a number to SendPulse, you have to delete the account in the app and lose the chat history.

With Coexistence, the same number runs in both products. Your team keeps answering from the app, and SendPulse sends and receives messages through the WhatsApp Business Platform. Messages your team sends from the app reach SendPulse as copies, so the chat history in SendPulse stays complete.

Coexistence is one of three ways to connect a phone number to a WhatsApp chatbot in SendPulse, so compare them before you choose:

Getting started

Before you open the connection wizard, make sure you have the following:

Please note that a number connected through Coexistence sends up to 20 messages per second, and this limit is fixed by Meta. Meta has been adding regions to Coexistence since 2025 and does not publish a list of supported countries. If the wizard shows This feature is unavailable for phone numbers from this region, connect the number as a new phone number instead.

What changes in the WhatsApp Business app

When the number starts running in SendPulse, Meta turns off some app features and leaves others working in the app only. Review the changes with your team before you connect, because they apply to the whole account, not to specific chats.

Meta turns off disappearing messages, view-once messages, and live location in all individual chats. Meta also turns off broadcast lists: you can't create new ones, and existing lists become read-only. Use WhatsApp campaigns in SendPulse instead.

These features keep working in the app but do not reach SendPulse:

Individual chats keep working as before: your team can edit and delete sent messages in the app, and SendPulse receives these changes.

When you connect the number, Meta also logs out all linked devices. You can then link up to four devices again, except WhatsApp for Windows and WhatsApp for Wear OS, which a connected number does not support.

Messages your team sends from the app stay free. You pay for the messages SendPulse sends through the WhatsApp Business Platform under SendPulse's pricing policy.

Read more: Changes in WhatsApp pricing policy.

Start the connection wizard

The connection starts in Meta's connection wizard, which opens in a pop-up window in SendPulse, and finishes in the WhatsApp Business app on the phone. Keep the phone unlocked and online the whole time.

To start the setup, go to the Chatbots section in your SendPulse account. If you haven't connected any channels yet, click Connect. If you already have connected chatbots, go to Manage bots and click Connect next to the WhatsApp channel.

In the WhatsApp section, go to the Connect own number tab, accept terms, and click Continue with Facebook.

If another WhatsApp provider has already registered your number, go to the Migrate tab instead. Read more: Switch to SendPulse from other WhatsApp providers.

Log in to the Facebook account that manages your Meta Business Portfolio, or the account you'll use to create it.

Meta's connection wizard opens. Click Continue.

Add your phone number

In the Phone number list, select the number that your WhatsApp Business app uses.

If the number meets Meta's requirements, the wizard asks you to choose your business time zone and review the information you entered.

Read more: Prepare your phone number before connecting and Requirements.

Once you finish, click Next.

Confirm the connection in the WhatsApp Business app

On the phone, you receive a push notification and a message from the official Facebook Business account. Open the WhatsApp Business app, tap Connect, and then tap Connect to the Business Platform.

To confirm the connection, scan the QR code from the browser with the app.

Finish the connection in SendPulse

When the connection succeeds, you get a confirmation message in the WhatsApp Business app and a pop-up in the browser. The wizard closes, and SendPulse sets up the chatbot environment, which takes a few minutes. After that, the chatbot appears in Manage bots.

Please note that connecting the number logs out all linked devices. Everyone on your team who answers from WhatsApp Web or a desktop app has to link the device to the WhatsApp Business app again.

Subscribe to your WhatsApp chatbot

To test your WhatsApp chatbot, you need to add your own WhatsApp account as the chatbot owner. To do this, click Set the owner. 

Then, follow the steps on the screen:

1. Log in to your personal WhatsApp account on your phone app.
2. Point your phone camera at the QR code and open the link. WhatsApp opens chat with the code pasted into the message field.
3. Send the message with this code.

Please note that the code changes when you reload the page. Send the current code to identify yourself as the chatbot owner.

If the setup is correct, the chatbot sends you the Welcome message flow, and the Owner label appears next to your contact in the chatbot audience in SendPulse.

Continue building your chatbot

The Welcome message, Standard reply, and Unsubscribe from flows are available by default. You can also create your own triggers and flows.

Plan the key conversations your chatbot should support, then build dedicated flows with the flow builder elements. Branch flows based on user behavior with the Button, Filter, and AI Agent elements. You can also generate flows with AI or apply ready-made flow templates that match your goals.

Once you set up your chatbot and flows, add chatbot links to your website or pop-ups.

Track your chatbot's performance in your account statistics and in chats with subscribers to analyze the user journey and improve it.

Read more: Create a chatbot flow, Create a WhatsApp campaign, Grow your audience.

Last Updated: 25.09.2026