A WhatsApp team inbox is a workspace where several teammates read and answer the conversations on one WhatsApp Business number, with an owner and internal notes on each conversation. It needs the number on the WhatsApp Business Platform, through Meta's Cloud API or a Business Solution Provider, because the WhatsApp Business app is built for one phone. A WhatsApp shared inbox is the same thing under a different name.
Move the number onto the WhatsApp Business Platform and connect it to an inbox tool. The team answers from the tool while clients keep messaging the number they already have. Replies are free-form for 24 hours after the client's last message and approved templates after that. Setup takes a Meta business portfolio, a connection route, the number, a display name and a first template.
We build Sektra, which runs a WhatsApp Business number as a WhatsApp shared inbox next to Gmail and Outlook. Meta's rules below are from its developer documentation, checked in October 2026. A sibling guide covers the four ways a team can share one WhatsApp Business number. Another covers how WhatsApp Business API pricing works. This one is about running the inbox.
What is a WhatsApp team inbox?
It is one number, worked by a team from a tool. Each conversation has an owner, so the team knows who is answering. It can carry an internal note the client never sees. When two people open the same conversation, the tool warns them. The history belongs to the company and stays when the person who used to hold the phone leaves.
The channel fits firms where the relationship is personal: agencies, recruiters, advisers, anyone whose clients have the account lead's number and use it. Recruiting agencies are the clearest case, since candidates and hiring managers both reach for WhatsApp first. The inbox puts that traffic where email already is, with the same owner, notes and record.
Can a team share the WhatsApp Business app?
Only in a limited way. The WhatsApp Business app is free, runs on one phone, and can be linked to a few other devices on the same account. Linked devices give the account more screens. They do not give it owners, notes, assignment or a record of who answered, and the history lives on the phone.
The WhatsApp Business Platform is the API version of the same number. Meta's Cloud API is the hosted service, and a business can connect to it directly through a Meta developer app, with its own WhatsApp Business Account and access token. A Business Solution Provider is the other route, a company that handles the connection, registration and billing for you. Either way, an inbox tool connects on top.
The platform is what makes a shared inbox possible, and it brings Meta's rules with it. The guide to WhatsApp Business with multiple users weighs the app, linked devices, a provider's own inbox and a shared inbox tool against one another. The rest of this post assumes you have chosen the last.
How do you set up a WhatsApp team inbox?
Six steps, in the order Meta's onboarding runs them.
- Create or confirm a Meta business portfolio, the account that owns your WhatsApp Business Account. Start business verification early. A new portfolio can message 250 unique recipients per 24 hours outside the customer service window, and verification is one of the paths to a higher limit.
- Pick the connection route: the Cloud API directly through a Meta developer app, or a Business Solution Provider. Check which route your inbox tool supports before you commit, since many connect through a provider's credentials.
- Register or migrate the number. A number already in use on WhatsApp cannot be registered until it is removed from the app, or moved across with Meta's embedded signup for WhatsApp Business app users. Keep the number the same so clients notice nothing.
- Set the display name, the name shown on the number's WhatsApp profile. It is set per number and Meta may hold it for review. Business verification is a separate process on the portfolio, so one can be complete while the other is pending.
- Submit the first message templates, categorized as marketing, utility or authentication. Approval is needed before any of them can be sent outside the 24-hour window, so submit a follow-up and a document request before the first client goes quiet.
- Connect the inbox. Enter the credentials your provider or Meta issued, assign the number, add the team, and import past conversations where the route makes them available. The help article on connecting WhatsApp Business covers the Sektra side.
What rules does a WhatsApp team inbox have to handle?
The 24-hour customer service window
When a client messages or calls the business, a 24-hour window opens, and each new message from them resets it. Inside the window the business can send any message. When it closes, only pre-approved templates can go out. In practice the team can answer a client normally on the day they wrote. A reply that slips to the day after tomorrow goes out as a template.
The inbox should show the window on each conversation and switch the composer to templates when it closes. A reply that fails silently after hours is the failure to design against. Our help article on templates and the 24-hour window covers the mechanics.
Message templates and approval
Templates are the messages a business may send outside the window: a follow-up, a document request, a meeting reminder, a renewal notice. Each is submitted for Meta's review in one of three categories, marketing, utility or authentication, and can be declined for structural reasons that are easy to get wrong.
Meta bills per delivered template, with the rate set by template category, while free-form replies inside the window carry no charge. WhatsApp Business API pricing explains the per-message model.
Opt-in
Meta requires that a business only message people who have opted in to hear from it on WhatsApp. A client who writes to you first has opened the conversation, and templated outreach later still rests on that consent, so decide where consent is recorded. The move from a personal number to a business profile also changes the tone a little, since clients see a business name where they used to see a person.
How does a team work one number?
Owner first. Every conversation gets one, by rule or by hand, and the owner's name shows on it. Notes second: the context behind a reply goes on the conversation, where the next person finds it. Collision third: when two people open the same conversation, the inbox shows a typing indicator, A teammate is typing a reply, so one of them stops.
Handoff is the fourth. When an account lead leaves or goes on holiday, the owner changes, the notes stay, and the client keeps messaging the same number. The company keeps the history. For many firms that alone is the reason to do this.
The last change is that WhatsApp stops being a separate world. A client who emails on Monday and messages on Wednesday is one relationship, and a promise made on WhatsApp is a promise. Getting email and WhatsApp into one omnichannel inbox covers what that takes.
Which tools offer a WhatsApp team inbox?
Six tools that connect a WhatsApp Business number to a team inbox. Each vendor's own site was checked in October 2026. Plan names and channel availability change, so confirm against the plan you would buy.
| Tool | How WhatsApp connects | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Sektra | Through your Business Solution Provider's credentials, stored encrypted; the number runs next to Gmail, Outlook and IMAP mailboxes | Owner, notes and typing indicator on each conversation, the window and templates in the composer, and one client record across WhatsApp and email with commitments and open questions |
| Front | A WhatsApp Business integration, listed for the Professional and Enterprise plans | A customer operations platform with WhatsApp as one channel in the queue; keeps no record of what was promised to a client |
| Missive | WhatsApp listed among its channels with email, SMS, Instagram, Messenger and live chat | Team collaboration on the thread; conversations stay per channel |
| Respond.io | Acts as a Business Solution Provider itself; the number of agents depends on the plan | A messaging inbox built around WhatsApp chats and calls |
| Trengo | A WhatsApp Business Partner; one WhatsApp instance the whole team manages | An omnichannel inbox for WhatsApp Business, email, social media, voice and live chat |
| Hiver | Part of Hiver Omni, a separate omnichannel platform; not listed for Hiver in Gmail | A support help desk where tickets open and close |
Every tool on the list puts WhatsApp in a queue with an owner. The difference for a client team is what the tool keeps after the conversation closes. Sektra keeps one record per client that spans WhatsApp and email, with the commitments and open questions pulled from both, which is the part a support queue never needed.
Where Sektra fits
Sektra connects a WhatsApp Business number with the credentials your provider issues, stores them encrypted, and runs the number as a shared inbox next to Gmail, Outlook and IMAP. Conversations are threads with an owner, notes, tags and history. The composer handles the window, with free-form replies inside it and approved templates outside it, and shows delivery and read state on each message.
Templates are created in Sektra, checked for the structural problems that cause rejections, submitted, and reused from the composer once approved. Past conversations are imported where the provider makes them available.
The memory layer, the record Sektra keeps per client from their email and WhatsApp history, tracks a commitment made on WhatsApp next to one made by mail. A watch, a silence alert with a day count you set, tells you the day a client goes quiet on both channels. A connected number counts as one shared inbox on the plan. The WhatsApp integration page and product page have the rest.
The number on your account lead's phone is already a shared inbox in everything but structure. Moving it onto the platform and into a team inbox does not change what clients do. It changes what the company keeps.
