Yes, you can register a landline in the WhatsApp Business app, or any number that can receive a voice call: when the verification code cannot go by SMS, the app offers to read it out by phone call. The number stays yours, and the customer sees the company number rather than a personal mobile. What usually fails is the call: nobody answers it, or it lands in a voice menu.
Registering the number, step by step
| 1 |
Choose the company number and make sure it is yours: in the company’s name, or yours, with access to the line. Whoever controls the number controls the account (choosing the number for a WhatsApp API).
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| 2 |
Install the WhatsApp Business app on a phone and enter the number, with the country code.
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| 3 |
Ask for the code by call. The app tries SMS first; since a landline cannot receive it, wait for the call button to become available and choose it (it may take a little while).
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| 4 |
Answer the call on the landline and write down the code the automated voice reads. Keep a pen handy: it is not repeated many times.
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What usually stops the call
| Problem |
Why |
Fix |
| The call never arrives |
The line has a voice menu, a PBX or an extension, and the automated call gets lost. |
Ask the operator or the PBX technician to route the call straight to an extension that answers, only while you register. |
| The code is cut off or too fast |
The call is a recorded voice at a brisk pace. |
Ask for another call when you are ready, next to the handset. |
| A warning that the number is already registered |
The number is registered on another WhatsApp (ordinary or Business) on another phone. |
Only one account at a time uses a number. Migrate or unlink it on the earlier installation. |
| You are waiting and it will not let you ask again |
You asked for the code several times in a row. |
Wait. Insisting only lengthens the wait. |
Two things to know before registering
One number, one account. The same number cannot be on ordinary WhatsApp and Business at the same time. If the company landline is also the one reception uses on ordinary WhatsApp, choose which of the two stays, and migrate if need be (which WhatsApp suits your business).
The landline does not replace the line. Registering the number on WhatsApp does not take the line from telephony: calls keep arriving. There is simply also a messaging account with that number.
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Before using a number customers already know, think about what you lose if the account goes. It is the same number as on the card, the shopfront and the invoice. See the risks of WhatsApp for business before tying it to any automation, and never tie it to unofficial tools.
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If you will use the API (several people, links to systems), the number must be able to receive Meta’s verification code. That holds there too: SMS or call. The exact conditions are Meta’s, and they change: the Cloud API: getting started with Meta.
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Not sure which number to use, or whether the app is enough or you need the API? Talk to us.
Open a support ticket
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