Glossary · 45 terms
Platform & accounts
How the WhatsApp Business Platform is put together: the Cloud API, business portfolios and WhatsApp Business Accounts, phone numbers and display names, onboarding through Embedded Signup and the partners who provide access.
Foundation· 18
Start here — the concepts everything else builds on.
- Business Solution ProviderBSPA Meta-approved Solution Partner that onboards businesses to the WhatsApp Business Platform, can extend its credit line and invoices them for API usage.Read definition
- Cloud APIMeta's hosted WhatsApp Business Platform API: send and receive messages over Graph API endpoints and webhooks, with no servers of your own to run.Read definition
- Display NameThe business name shown at the top of a WhatsApp chat and in the chat list, reviewed by Meta against its display name rules before it appears there.Read definition
- Meta Business ManagerThe business portfolio, formerly called Business Manager, that owns a company's WABAs, apps, Pages and ad accounts and controls who can use them.Read definition
- Meta Business SuiteMeta's free web and mobile workspace for managing a business's Facebook Page, Instagram account, inbox messages, posts, ads and insights in one place.Read definition
- Multi-Device (Linked Devices)The WhatsApp Business app feature that links up to four extra devices, such as WhatsApp Web, desktop or another phone, to one business number.Read definition
- Phone Number EligibilityThe rules that decide whether a number can join the WhatsApp Business Platform: you own it, it has a country code and it can receive an SMS or voice code.Read definition
- Virtual Number (for WhatsApp)A phone number not tied to a SIM — a cloud telephony DID, VoIP or virtual landline — used as a WhatsApp Business number and verified by voice call.Read definition
- WhatsApp API OnboardingThe end-to-end path from a Meta business portfolio to the first sent WhatsApp API message: accounts, number, display name, payment, webhooks and templates.Read definition
- WhatsApp Business AccountWABAThe account inside a Meta business portfolio that holds a business's WhatsApp numbers, message templates, billing settings and webhook subscriptions.Read definition
- WhatsApp Business APIMeta's programmatic access to WhatsApp for medium and large businesses: send and receive messages from your own systems, today through the Cloud API.Read definition
- WhatsApp Business AppMeta's free Android and iOS app for small businesses, adding a business profile, catalogue, labels and automated replies to WhatsApp on one phone.Read definition
- WhatsApp Business App vs APIHow the free WhatsApp Business App and the paid WhatsApp Business API differ on users, automation, integrations, pricing and how many customers you can reach.Read definition
- WhatsApp Business DirectoryThe in-app search and directory surfaces where WhatsApp users can look up and discover businesses by name or category before any chat begins.Read definition
- WhatsApp Business PlatformMeta's name for its full suite of WhatsApp business messaging products: the Cloud API, management APIs, marketing, Flows, calling and groups.Read definition
- WhatsApp Business ProfileThe public info card customers see when they tap a business on WhatsApp: about text, description, address, email, websites, category and profile photo.Read definition
- WhatsApp ManagerMeta's web console inside Business Suite where admins manage WhatsApp accounts, phone numbers, templates, Flows, insights and payment settings.Read definition
- WhatsApp vs WhatsApp BusinessThe consumer WhatsApp app is for personal chats; the WhatsApp Business App adds a business profile, catalogue, labels and automated replies for sellers.Read definition
Practitioner· 18
What you need once you are running it day to day.
- Business App to API MigrationMoving a number off the WhatsApp Business app onto the Cloud API for good: delete the app account, then verify and register the number on the API.Read definition
- Business UsernameA unique @handle a business claims on WhatsApp so customers can find and message it without knowing or typing its phone number.Read definition
- CoexistenceRunning the WhatsApp Business App and the Cloud API on the same phone number at once, with chats mirrored between the phone and your platform.Read definition
- Direct Cloud API IntegrationConnecting your own Meta developer app straight to the WhatsApp Cloud API, with no partner in between: you own the code, the billing and the support.Read definition
- Embedded SignupMeta's pop-up onboarding flow that a partner launches from its own site so a business can create or connect its WABA and phone number in minutes.Read definition
- Green API vs Official APIThe choice between unofficial gateways that automate WhatsApp Web or the app, and Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform with its Cloud API.Read definition
- Meta Business PartnerA company Meta has vetted and admitted to its Meta Business Partners programme, with a badge and directory listing across Meta's business products.Read definition
- Meta Direct SupportMeta's ticketing channel where WhatsApp Business Platform partners and eligible developers raise technical, account and integration issues with Meta.Read definition
- Multiple WABAsRunning more than one WhatsApp Business Account in a business portfolio to separate templates, billing and webhooks by brand, region or partner.Read definition
- On-Premises APIThe self-hosted, Docker-based WhatsApp Business API client that businesses ran on their own servers; Meta sunset it on 23 October 2025.Read definition
- Phone Number LimitThe cap on how many business phone numbers one business portfolio can register on WhatsApp: 2 at first, rising to 20 after verification or a 2,000 limit.Read definition
- Phone Number MigrationMoving an API-registered WhatsApp number to another WABA or partner; on Meta's new account model it is replaced by sharing the number's WhatsApp account.Read definition
- Shared WABAA client-owned WhatsApp Business Account that the business shares with a partner's app, granting it permissions to send, manage templates and read metrics.Read definition
- Solution Partner (BSP) vs Tech ProviderThe two official WhatsApp partner routes compared: a Solution Partner (BSP) holds a credit line and bills clients, a Tech Provider leaves billing to Meta.Read definition
- Tech ProviderMeta's partner role for software companies that onboard client businesses to the Cloud API through Embedded Signup, without a credit line or direct billing.Read definition
- WhatsApp API ResellerAn agency or white-label platform that sells WhatsApp API access under its own brand, on top of a Meta Solution Partner or Tech Provider it relies on.Read definition
- WhatsApp Platform IDsThe identifiers the WhatsApp Business Platform uses (portfolio, app, WABA, phone number, wa_id, BSUID, wamid) and how they nest inside each other.Read definition
- WhatsApp UsernamesHandles that WhatsApp users can adopt in 2026 so others reach them without seeing their number, changing how businesses identify and record customers.Read definition
Expert· 9
Edge cases, internals and the details that matter at scale.
- Access VerificationMeta's former check that a verified business really was a Tech Provider serving other businesses, required after App Review until 3 October 2025.Read definition
- Business-Scoped User IDBSUIDA per-portfolio identifier Meta gives each WhatsApp user, such as IN.1349…, so businesses can recognise and reply to people who hide their number.Read definition
- Cloud API Local StorageA per-number Cloud API setting that keeps WhatsApp message content at rest only in Meta data centres in one chosen country, such as India.Read definition
- Facebook Login for BusinessMeta's business-grade login product whose saved configuration (`config_id`) defines the token, assets and permissions a partner app requests from a client.Read definition
- Message History SyncThe one-time Coexistence backfill that sends up to six months of a WhatsApp Business app number's one-to-one chats to the partner by webhook.Read definition
- Multi-Partner SolutionMPSA Meta arrangement in which a Tech Provider and a Solution Partner jointly serve clients: one builds the product, the other supplies the credit line.Read definition
- On-Behalf-Of ModelOBOThe retired WhatsApp onboarding model in which a partner created and owned the WABA in its own portfolio and operated it on behalf of the client business.Read definition
- Pre-Verified Phone NumberA WhatsApp business number that a Solution Partner verifies in advance, so a client can pick it in Embedded Signup without waiting for a one-time code.Read definition
- Tech PartnerA WhatsApp Tech Provider that has met Meta's volume, client and quality thresholds and joined the Meta Business Partner programme with a WhatsApp specialty.Read definition
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