Introduction
A WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) lets your business use the WhatsApp Business Platform to communicate directly with your customers.
Types of Business Accounts
There are two types of WhatsApp Business Accounts:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Business Account |
|
Official Business Account |
An official business account has a green checkmark badge in its profile and chat thread headers. |
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WhatsApp Business Accounts:
- If your WhatsApp account is a normal WhatsApp Business Account then display name is only shown in the contacts view in smaller text.
- Other views will show the phone number.
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You can help customers learn more about your company by filling out your business info, including business website, address, and hours.
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Official Business Account:
- Official Business Account (OBA) means that WhatsApp has verified that an authenticity, notable brand owns this account.
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If your WhatsApp Business account is an Official Business Account (OBA), then there will be a green checkmark badge added in the displayed name in the contact view.
Criteria to apply for an Official Business Account:
Meta criteria for WhatsApp Official Business Accounts (OBA) is based on a number of factors and is different from policies on other platforms. In addition to following WhatsApp's Commerce and Business Policies, businesses need to be:
- Notable: Represents a well-known business, often searched brand or entity
- Verified: Has completed Facebook Business Manager Account (FBMA) verification through Business Verification.
- 2FA: Has set up two-step verification.
- You can submit up to 5 supporting links especially from renowned publications (e.g., India Today, Economic times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Wikipedia, Business Insider) to show that the business is notable, which helps us determine notability.
- Fields like Country(s) of operation, parent business or brand (esp. if it is a well known brand) and Primary language helps us to further understand your brand and eligibility for OBA.
- Once Meta reviewed your request, we will update you on the status of OBA letting you know if your account has been granted OBA or not.
- If your request is rejected, you can submit a new request after 30 days.
P.S Meta does not grant Official Business Accounts to business employees, test accounts, and Business App accounts.
Understanding Notability
- Notability requires a business to represent a well-known, often searched brand or entity. This should not be taken as a signal of the authenticity of the business.
- Notability, on the other hand, reflects a substantial presence in online news articles.
- Notability is assessed based on an account’s presence in news articles from publications with sizable audiences.
- Meta do not consider paid or promotional content as sources for review, including business or app listings.
- Official business accounts are issued at the phone number and display name level.
- Meta assess notability for the Display Name of the business account that is requesting OBA status —If the display name is changed after receiving the OBA status, meta will need to re-assess the new display name for notability and Display Name Compliance.
- OBA approvals within a WhatsApp Business Account do not guarantee approval for other numbers (with different display names) associated with that account.
- If your WABA contains one main parent brand and the phone number associated with that brand meets notability requirements, we suggest updating the display names for the child brands as follows: '{{sub-brand name}} by {{notable name}}'.
Denied Requests
- If your OBA request has been denied, it means Meta team has carefully reviewed your account, and unfortunately, your account is not eligible for the OBA status at this time.
- Businesses can continue to grow their presence and wait 30 days before submitting another Official Business Account request.
In the meantime, this decision does not limit your ability to share your business details. Each phone number also has a business profile which includes the profile picture, email, website, and business description. These are fields that you can edit at any time. We hope you continue to connect with and grow your customer reach on WhatsApp.
Check List & Form for Official Business Account
Verified business account can be applied by filling up the verified business account form. The key aspects to remember before you apply included
- You have verified your business in Facebook business manager.
- 2 Factor Authentication to be enabled.
- Your business display name follows the display guidelines set by WhatsApp & should match with the external branding. (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/overview/display-name)
- The WhatsApp display name should match with the name mentioned on website & on articles provided.
- You have started live production traffic for at least 30 days.
- Your business number was not flagged in the recent past due to poor quality messaging. (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/api/rate-limits#quality)
Official WABA Request Form | |
WABA Phone Number | |
A brief description of what is this WhatsApp Business Number is being used for. (Include URLs for reference) | |
WABA Official Display Name | |
Business Website | |
Facebook Page | |
If the business is known under any other name, please provide those names | |
News/Publication Articles for Business Entity (minimum 5-6 URLs) | |
Have you finished business verification? |
The above details to be send to provisioning@karix.com with cc to kalyani.patil@karix.com, neha.walia@karix.com, sahil.khatri@karix.com, jasleen.chawla@karix.com, karan.malhotra@karix.com and nimit.a@meritto.com along with the WABA ID of the account which is shared by Karix team at the time of integration.
Reference article from Meta on OBA Request:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/overview/business-accounts/
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