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Answer your leads on WhatsApp from one screen: every lead with a phone number on the left, and the thread of whichever one you pick on the right.
Where
Communication→WhatsApp Chat
Your role needs
Read access to WhatsApp Chat read-messages. Admin, Member and Viewer have it by default.
To create or change
create-messages to add one, update-messages to change one, on top of the permission above.
Your plan
Needs at least one seat for WhatsApp numbers.
If you cannot find this in your sidebar, your workspace may have a custom menu configuration. Contact support and we will check it for you.

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Before you begin

  • A WhatsApp number connected in this workspace and Active. Without one, this whole screen (list and thread together) is replaced by a prompt to connect or reconnect a number. See Connect a WhatsApp number.
  • At least one lead with a phone number. A lead with none never appears here, so there is nothing to open. See Get a phone number for a lead.
  • Retrying a failed message needs update-messages on top of the access above.

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Steps

1

Open the list

Go to . The left panel lists only leads with a phone number. No search or filter widens that. It is always ordered by the most recent WhatsApp activity on each conversation, and Search leads… narrows it by name.With no phone-having lead to show at all, both sides read No leads with a phone number yet. Otherwise, until you pick a lead the right-hand side reads Select a conversation.
2

Open a conversation and reply

Select a lead. The thread opens on the right, and anything unread on it is marked read straight away, before you type. A lead you have never exchanged a WhatsApp message with reads No WhatsApp messages yet — say hello! instead of a history.Type into Type a message… and press to send, + for a new line. The thread is not only what you type: messages your agents and workflows sent this lead from a connected number sit in the same timeline, and one parked for later sits there dimmed, marked with when it is due.
3

Choose which number is talking

A number selector appears in the thread header only when the workspace has more than one Active WhatsApp number. On a thread with no messages yet it decides which number the first one goes out from; the moment the thread has any message on it the selector is disabled, so the number that opened a conversation is the one that stays on it. On a thread that already exists, the header preselects the number the conversation is already running on.
4

Stop your agents while you take over

The thread header carries a control whose tooltip reads Disable automation. It stops agents and workflows messaging this lead while you handle the conversation by hand. Selecting it opens a menu: Disable automation for this lead, and, when the lead belongs to a company, the same for every lead at that company.
5

Filter and catch up

Unread only narrows the list to conversations with something unread. Once nothing is left in it, the list shows You’re all caught up and a Show all conversations button that drops the filter. Mark all read sits above the list whenever anything in the workspace is unread, and clears every unread WhatsApp conversation in the workspace at once, not just the page you are looking at. To put one conversation back, each row has a hover control that marks that lead read or unread on its own.

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What happens next

Your message appears in the thread straight away marked Sending…, and settles into a normal sent bubble once it goes out.
A send that comes back failed shows Failed where the time would be; hover it for the reason, and use the retry arrow beside it (its tooltip reads Retry) to send the same text again without retyping it. The retry arrow is only there if your role can change messages. The list and the open thread both poll on their own, so an incoming reply surfaces in both without a refresh. There is no refresh button to look for.

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Troubleshooting

A number is linked to this workspace, but none of them is Active right now, so nothing can be sent or received and the chat is replaced by this screen. Pausing counts: a paused number is not Active either, so pausing your only number lands you here. Select Manage accounts to reconnect or resume it: see Your WhatsApp number is disconnected for how to tell a real drop apart from a number that is warming up or out of budget for the day.
This screen only ever shows leads with a phone number, so a missing lead almost always just doesn’t have one yet. It is not a problem with the chat. Get a phone number for a lead first, and they appear here on their own.
No WhatsApp number has ever been linked to this workspace, so there is nothing to read or send from. That is a different screen from the disconnected one above: it reads Chat with your leads on WhatsApp and its button is Connect WhatsApp. Connect a WhatsApp number and the chat replaces it.

Connect a WhatsApp number

Link a phone with a QR code or a pairing code, then set its message and new-chat limits.

WhatsApp limits and warm-up

Why a number can still send messages but refuses to open a new conversation, and how the first days are paced.

Get a phone number for a lead

Reveal a lead’s phone number so you have something to message them on.