WhatsApp Business Cloud

· #100 most-used

Reach 2 billion customers where they already are

CommunicationMarketingSupportSalesAutomation

WhatsApp Business Cloud is Meta's official cloud-hosted API for building scalable, enterprise-grade customer messaging directly on WhatsApp. Connect your agent and it can send rich messages, react to inbound events in real time, fire pre-approved templates at scale, and close the loop on interactive replies — all without managing your own server infrastructure. The result: customer communication that feels instant and personal, handled automatically across Sales, Support, Marketing, and Operations.

Average time saved
11 hours
per person · per month
1 workdays back

Eliminates manual work. The agent eliminates manual message drafting, copy-pasting phone numbers, chasing delivery confirmations, and switching between WhatsApp Web and CRM tabs — work that adds up to 9 hours per week for a 10-person team.

Schedule

What your WhatsApp Business Cloud agent runs on autopilot

A week of scheduled jobs your Actionist agent will execute on your behalf.

28Scheduled jobs
7Agents at work
24/7Always on
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
7am
8am
9am
10am
11am
12pm
1pm
2pm
3pm
4pm
5pm
6pm
Agents
Multi-app workflows

WhatsApp Business Cloud × every other app you use

End-to-end automations that span multiple apps — each one a real business outcome.

6Workflows
9Apps spanned
~64 hrsSaved / week
6Personas served
customer-success★ FeaturedSaves 8m saved · runs ~120× /week

Instant WhatsApp Support Triage

The moment a customer messages your WhatsApp Business number, the agent reads the content, classifies the intent, logs a Zendesk ticket with the full transcript, and sends the customer a personalised acknowledgement with their ticket ID — all in under five seconds. No customer waits in silence, and no message slips through during busy periods. Your support team opens Zendesk to an already-triaged queue, not a chaotic inbox.

Trigger: Inbound WhatsApp message received from a customer
Step 1 trigger
Gmail
Message Received — capture inbound customer message and sender phone number
Step 2 read
Whatsapp Business Cloud
Find or create contact by phone number
Step 3 write
Whatsapp Business Cloud
Mark as Read — signal to the customer their message is acknowledged
Step 4 write
Slack
Post new message alert to #support-queue channel
Step 5 write
Google Calendar
Send — deliver personalised ticket confirmation with reference number
Every customer gets an instant reply with a real ticket number
Savings

What this looks like for your team

The comparison strip shows real manual tasks your agent replaces. The calculator translates that into your team's numbers.

Without Actionist
With WhatsApp Business Cloud agent
  • Sales
    Manual lead follow-up messages
    Reps copy-paste follow-up texts into WhatsApp Web one contact at a time after each demo, eating up pre-close selling time.
    19 min/week
    Sales Agent
    Agent sends personalised follow-ups instantly
    When a deal moves to 'demo done' in the CRM, the agent fires a personalised WhatsApp message within 60 seconds — rep stays focused on the next call.
  • Marketing
    Manual broadcast scheduling
    Campaign managers export contact lists, import them into a WhatsApp tool, manually schedule broadcasts, and chase approval before each send.
    14 min/week
    Marketing Agent
    Automated template broadcasts at scale
    The agent pulls the approved segment, checks template status, and fires the campaign to thousands of contacts — scheduled or triggered — without any manual intervention.
  • Customer Support
    Manually replying to every WhatsApp message
    Support agents scan WhatsApp Business app throughout the day, drafting replies and routing conversations to colleagues by hand.
    19 min/week
    Customer Support Agent
    Agent triages, replies, and routes instantly
    The agent classifies every inbound message, sends an immediate acknowledgement, and routes the conversation to the right queue — human agents only handle what needs a human.
  • Human Resources
    Sending interview reminders manually
    Recruiters message each candidate individually on WhatsApp the day before an interview to confirm attendance, spending 20–30 minutes on scheduling admin.
    8 min/week
    Human Resources Agent
    Agent sends and confirms automatically
    24 hours before each scheduled interview, the agent sends a confirmation message with button options; replies update the ATS with no recruiter action required.
  • Finance
    Chasing invoice payments by message
    Finance staff manually text overdue clients on WhatsApp with invoice details and payment links, repeating the process for each outstanding balance.
    14 min/week
    Finance Agent
    Agent sends tiered payment reminders
    The agent sends a WhatsApp payment reminder at 3 days, 1 day, and day-of due date, each with a one-click payment link — reducing days-to-collect without staff involvement.
  • Operations
    Notifying field teams by hand
    Operations managers individually message field staff on WhatsApp when job assignments change, urgent alerts surface, or delivery windows shift.
    30 min/week
    Operations Agent
    Agent pushes real-time operational alerts
    Job changes, priority flags, and scheduling updates trigger instant WhatsApp messages to the right field staff the moment the source system updates.
  • Legal
    Manually sending contract signing nudges
    Legal coordinators message counterparties on WhatsApp to chase outstanding e-signature requests, tracking responses in a spreadsheet.
    6 min/week
    Legal Agent
    Agent sends and tracks signing reminders
    When an e-signature request ages past 48 hours, the agent sends an automated WhatsApp nudge with the signing link and logs the contact attempt in the contracts tracker.

+ 100s of other automations your agent handles

Average monthly savings
11 hours / person
ROI calculator

See what your team gets back

Team size
10 people
Fully-loaded rate
$20 / hour
Hours / week
28
Hours / year
1,400
Annual ROI
$28,000

Baseline: 2.8 hrs saved per person per week, across the full WhatsApp Business Cloud automation set.

Connect

How to plug WhatsApp Business Cloud into Actionist

Pick the connection method that suits your environment.

Connect via the WhatsApp Business Cloud MCP server for the fastest setup — Actionist handles the Meta API authentication handshake and webhook registration automatically, so you're sending and receiving messages in under two minutes.

1
Open the Apps tab

Find WhatsApp Business Cloud in the Apps library and click Connect. MCP is selected by default.

2
Authorise with Meta Business Suite

A Meta OAuth window opens. Log in with the account that manages your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA), grant the requested permissions (whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management), and select the phone number to connect.

3
Test the connection

Actionist runs a read-only call to verify the handshake. You're ready.

Read the WhatsApp Business Cloud docs →
Actions

16 actions your agent can call

Read and write operations available to your Actionist agent.

Triggers

7 events your agent can react to

Events your agent watches for, and the actions it kicks off in response.

Skills

Skills that pair with WhatsApp Business Cloud

Reusable agent skills that work well alongside this app.

No paired skills curated yet. Add this app to your agent to discover what fits.
MCP servers

MCP servers that work with WhatsApp Business Cloud

Connect Actionist to MCP servers built for or around this app.

samihalawa-whatsapp-go-mcp
Official

Send WhatsApp messages, images, and links by scanning a QR code once — no API key management required. Ideal for personal or small-team automation where simplicity beats configuration.

whatsapp
Official

Send WhatsApp messages directly from Actionist, Claude Code, and Codex via MCP — purpose-built for developer-driven messaging automation.

whatsapp-macos
Official

Read messages from the local WhatsApp database and send via WhatsApp Web on macOS — useful for extracting conversation history or automating sends without the Cloud API.

FAQs

Questions about WhatsApp Business Cloud + Actionist

How do I connect WhatsApp Business Cloud in Actionist?
Go to the Apps tab, find WhatsApp Business Cloud, and click Connect. The recommended path uses the built-in MCP server — Actionist handles the Cloud API handshake for you. If you prefer a direct API token, select the API key method, paste your Meta system user access token, and click Test connection. Either way, you're live in under two minutes.
What credentials does WhatsApp Business Cloud require?
You need a Meta system user access token scoped to your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA). Generate it in the Meta Business Suite under System Users, grant it whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management permissions, and paste the token into Actionist. For webhook-driven triggers like Message Received, you also need a webhook configured in the Meta App Dashboard pointing at Actionist's endpoint.
Which message types can the agent send?
The agent can send plain text, images, audio, video, documents, location pins, contact cards, interactive button messages, interactive list messages, and pre-approved template messages. Template messages — required to initiate a conversation outside a 24-hour customer-initiated window — must be approved by Meta before the agent can use them.
What events can trigger an Actionist workflow from WhatsApp?
Actionist can react to seven WhatsApp Cloud API webhook events: Message Received (any inbound text, media, or location), Message Delivered, Message Read, Message Failed, Button Reply Received, List Reply Received, and Opt-In Received. Each trigger passes the full webhook payload into the workflow so you can branch on message content, contact ID, or reply value.
What are the rate limits for the WhatsApp Cloud API?
Meta enforces per-phone-number rate limits: 80 messages per second by default, upgradeable for high-volume accounts. Template message sends are subject to conversation-based pricing — one conversation fee per 24-hour customer-initiated or business-initiated window. Actionist's workflow engine respects these limits with built-in retry logic when a rate-limit error fires.
Can I use WhatsApp Business Cloud with other apps in Actionist?
Yes — that's where it shines. You can chain WhatsApp with HubSpot to send deal-stage messages, with Google Sheets to run broadcast campaigns from a spreadsheet, with Zendesk to confirm ticket creation, with Stripe to send payment links, and with any other connected app. The agent moves data between systems and sends the right message at the right moment without you switching tabs.
How does Actionist handle WhatsApp opt-outs and GDPR?
When a Message Failed event returns an opt-out or block error code, Actionist automatically records the event in the workflow log and can be configured to remove the contact from your send lists in connected apps such as HubSpot or Airtable. For GDPR erasure requests, the agent can call the Delete action to remove uploaded media files from the Cloud API store and update your records accordingly.
Can I schedule recurring WhatsApp sends from Actionist?
Yes. Actionist's calendar jobs let you run WhatsApp workflows on any recurring schedule — daily, weekly, or custom cron patterns. Your Sales Agent can send weekly pipeline summaries every Monday morning, your Marketing Agent can fire a campaign newsletter every Tuesday, and your Support Agent can deliver a backlog digest every Friday afternoon, all automatically.