Move from the WhatsApp Business app to the API without losing your number or your chats

Your customers know your number, and years of quotes and jobs sit in your chats. Good news: you can move to the WhatsApp Business API, which is what lets software answer and file those chats, and keep the number, the app on your phone and the last 6 months of one-to-one chats.

Meta calls that route coexistence. Take the wrong route and you delete your account, and your chats go with it. Below you’ll see both, what you keep on the phone and what stops, every step in order and where it goes wrong. Each fact comes from Meta’s or WhatsApp’s own pages, read on 2 November 2026.

Two ways to move, and only one keeps your chats

Coexistence connects your existing number through a provider, with Meta’s Embedded Signup. Full migration means you delete your WhatsApp account, wait for the number to free up, then register it on the API.

If you’re a small business, take coexistence. Full migration only makes sense if you’re sending at a volume where 20 messages a second holds you back, and you don’t mind losing the app.

What stays on your phone, and what stops working

Most of the app stays as it was: your catalog, orders and status updates, your greeting and away messages, quick replies and labels, your business profile and your calls. Meta doesn’t support those on the API, so your software won’t have them.

These do change as soon as you connect:

• Broadcast lists stop. You can’t create new ones, and your existing lists turn read-only. Sending to many people moves to approved templates on the API.
• Disappearing messages turn off in all one-to-one chats.
• View once and live location stop working in one-to-one chats.
• Every linked device is unlinked. You can link up to four supported ones again, and WhatsApp Web is one of them. WhatsApp for Windows and WearOS aren’t supported. Messages sent from those don’t reach your software, so a customer’s chat can look unanswered there.

Fees change only for what goes through the API. Messages you send from the app stay free, and messages sent through the API are charged at Meta’s per-message rates. Our WhatsApp API pricing guide lists them for Singapore.

What happens to your chat history, in days and exceptions

Under coexistence, Meta shares your history with your provider’s software once, when you connect. Here’s what it covers:

• One-to-one chats from the 180 days before you connect, sent in three batches: the last day, then day 1 to 90, then day 90 to 180.
• Your contacts with a WhatsApp number, also once. After that, changes to your contacts sync as they happen.
• Media files only from the last 14 days, so older media messages come through without the file.
• No group chats.

Sharing is your choice, and the screen asks you. If you decline, your software gets no history, though your chats stay on your phone either way.

There’s a deadline too. Your provider has 24 hours after you connect to sync the history, and if that’s missed, you have to disconnect and go through the whole flow again. Meta’s advice is to keep the WhatsApp Business app open while it runs.

After that, new messages stay in step. What you send from the phone shows up in your software’s thread, and what your team sends from the software appears on your phone.

What to prepare before you connect

Meta asks for very little. Have these ready and the sign-up runs in one sitting:

• The phone that runs the number, with the WhatsApp Business app on version 2.24.17 or newer.
• A Facebook or Meta business login, for the person who owns the business assets.
• A business portfolio, which is Meta’s container for your WhatsApp accounts. You can pick an existing one or create it during the flow.
• A display name. Meta reviews it automatically once you reach a higher messaging limit, against its display name guidelines, and you can edit it or appeal if it’s rejected.
• A number in good standing, since a banned number has to be unbanned through Meta’s appeal process first.

If your number is on ordinary WhatsApp, move it to the WhatsApp Business app first. WhatsApp’s help pages say you can move between the two apps, though not run one number on both at once. And business verification is worth starting early. It’s one of three ways to lift your limit from 250 to 2,000 people in 24 hours.

Connecting your number: every screen, in order

For a number that’s already on the app, Embedded Signup moves into the coexistence flow by itself. Meta’s pages describe the phone check two ways, with a QR code on one page and a copied code on another, so expect one or the other. Here’s the order:

1. Sign in with your Facebook or Meta business login.
2. Review what the provider’s app is allowed to access.
3. Enter your phone number, and the flow recognises it’s on the WhatsApp Business app.
4. Check your business profile, then pick your business portfolio or create one.
5. Prove the phone is yours: scan the QR code with the app, or copy the code shown and tap Connect on the message from Facebook Business.
6. Tap Confirm in the app to choose whether to share your chat history.
7. Confirm your business information and accept the terms.

That’s all your part. Your provider then syncs your history and contacts. Meta says that can take several minutes, and how long depends on how much history you have.

Full migration is shorter but harder to undo. Back up your chats, open the app, go to Settings, then Account, then Delete my account, and follow the steps. Wait up to 3 minutes, then add the number to the API, verify it with a code by text or call, and register it.

Where it goes wrong, and how to avoid each failure

• Old app version: anything under 2.24.17 fails, so update first.
• The 24-hour sync runs out: if the phone is off or the app is closed for a day, you’ll have to disconnect and redo the flow. Do this on a day the phone stays with you.
• Replying to a customer who messaged before you connected: Meta opens the 24-hour window only for messages that arrive after you’ve connected, so anyone who wrote just before can only get a template until they write again.
• Changing phones or reinstalling the app: your API connection drops and messaging through it stops until you reconnect. When you register again, a pre-checked option reconnects you, which Meta says typically finishes in a few minutes, and you then re-link WhatsApp Web by hand.
• Leaving the phone unused: Meta lists about 14 days without activity on the main phone as a reason for disconnecting you from the API, so open the app at least once a week.
• Replying from WhatsApp for Windows: those messages don’t reach your software, so your team can’t see them there. Use a supported device.
• Switching provider while still on the old one’s credit line: Meta says you may see an error, so raise it with the old provider first.
• Error 131060 on a first message: Meta says this is expected for first-time senders, often from click-to-WhatsApp ads, and usually clears within seconds.

Your questions about moving to the API, answered

Will I lose my WhatsApp chats if I move to the API?

Not with coexistence. They stay on your phone, and the last 6 months of one-to-one chats sync to your software. Full migration erases them when you delete the account.

Can I keep using the WhatsApp Business app after moving to the API?

Yes, with coexistence. You reply from the phone and your team replies from the software, on the same number. Meta says messages are mirrored between the two.

Will my customers notice anything?

They message the same number. The change they might see is your display name, which Meta can review once you reach a higher messaging limit.

How long does it take?

Meta says onboarding and syncing can take several minutes. How long depends on your history and your connection. Your provider has 24 hours to finish the sync.

Can I undo coexistence?

Yes. In the app, go to Settings, then Account, then Business Platform, then Disconnect Account. Your provider can’t do this for you through the API.

Is coexistence available in Singapore?

Meta’s onboarding page lists no excluded countries, so nothing there rules out Singapore. Ask your provider to confirm before you start.

Can I move a personal WhatsApp number?

Move it to the WhatsApp Business app first, then connect it. Meta’s coexistence flow only applies to numbers on the Business app.

Will my group chats move?

No. Groups aren’t synced to the API, so they stay on the phone.

Does the 24-hour rule still apply?

Yes, to messages sent through the API. Messages from the app don’t open, extend or close that window.

Don’t want to do this yourself? We connect your number for you

You don’t have to learn any of this. On our WhatsApp AI agent, our team connects your number to Meta’s official Cloud API through coexistence, and you keep your number and the WhatsApp Business app on your phone. Your part is the check on your phone.

Once it’s connected, the agent answers new enquiries within a minute from your price list and FAQs, in the customer’s language. It hands the chat to your team with the full thread, and files each lead in your CRM.

Plans start at S$390 a month on annual billing, with no setup fee, and Meta’s message fees pass through at cost. See the agent’s pricing page for all three plans, or read how the agent works and how it compares with Wati, SleekFlow and respond.io.

Not sure the API is right for you yet? Our guide to the WhatsApp Business API sets out when the free app is enough. Moving from Wati, SleekFlow or respond.io rather than from the app? Our switching guide shows what comes across. The missed enquiry calculator shows what late replies cost you, and we run the Facebook ads and Google Ads that bring those enquiries in. Our lead follow-up and CRM automation files web forms and bookings in the same place. Our free WhatsApp link generator makes a link and QR code for your site. Everything else we build sits under our AI systems and workflow automation.

On a free 30-minute call we look at how your enquiries get answered today and show you the agent on your own questions. You only get a quote if we can help.

Book a demo call

Sources, read on 2 November 2026

• Coexistence: requirements, chat and contact sync, what changes in the app, speed, windows, disconnecting and failures: Meta, Onboarding WhatsApp Business app users
• The flow’s screens, in order: Meta, Embedded Signup default flow
• What you do in Embedded Signup: Meta, Embedded Signup overview
• Changing devices and reconnecting: Meta, Reconnecting offboarded coexistence clients
• Full migration by deleting the account: Meta, Migrate an existing number
• Number eligibility, verification and registration: Meta, Business phone numbers
• Display name review and changes: Meta, Display names
• Messaging limits and business verification: Meta, Messaging limits
• Per-message fees: Meta, Pricing
• 20 and 80 messages a second: Meta, Throughput
• What deleting an account removes: WhatsApp Help, How to delete your account
• Moving between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business: WhatsApp Help, About WhatsApp Business
• Linked devices: WhatsApp Help, About linked devices