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How-to

How to set up a multi-agent WhatsApp inbox for your support team

Touchbaze Team5 min read

One WhatsApp number, one phone, five people trying to answer customers from it — it doesn't work for long. A shared inbox lets your whole team reply from the same number, see each other's conversations, and hand off without dropping anything.

This guide walks through setting one up with Touchbaze Engage. Budget about an hour, most of which is waiting on Meta.

Before you start

You'll need:

  • A Meta business portfolio for your company
  • A phone number for WhatsApp that isn't registered on the WhatsApp app (or one you're ready to migrate)
  • Admin access to your Meta business portfolio, so you can create the credentials Touchbaze needs

Step 1: Connect your WhatsApp number

In Meta's developer tools, add WhatsApp to an app in your business portfolio and register your phone number. Meta gives you three things you'll need:

  1. Your WhatsApp Business Account ID
  2. Your phone number ID
  3. A permanent access token, created through a system user in your business portfolio

In Touchbaze, open the channel settings for WhatsApp and paste those three values. Touchbaze connects to Meta's Cloud API directly, so there's no BSP account to create and no per-message markup.

If your number already lives with Twilio, 360dialog or Gupshup, you can connect that provider instead and migrate later.

Step 2: Invite your agents

Add each teammate by email and give them a role. A sensible starting point:

  • Agents reply to conversations assigned to them
  • Team leads see the whole inbox and can reassign conversations
  • Admins manage channels, automation and billing

Keep admin access small. Most people only need to answer customers.

Step 3: Automate the first reply

The fastest win is answering the questions you get every day without anyone typing. Create a few keyword-triggered flows:

  • "price" or "pricing" → your pricing summary and a link
  • "hours" or "open" → opening hours and location
  • "order" or "track" → how to check an order, or a request for the order number

Each flow sends an instant reply and can tag the contact, so your team knows what the conversation is about before they open it. Anything the automation can't handle goes to a person.

Remember the 24-hour rule: you can reply freely within 24 hours of a customer's last message. Touchbaze enforces the window, so automations and agents won't accidentally send a free-form message after it closes.

Step 4: Route conversations to the right people

Decide how new conversations reach agents. Common patterns:

  • By topic — tags from your automation flows send billing questions to one person and delivery issues to another
  • By availability — new conversations go to whoever is on shift
  • By owner — returning customers go back to the agent who helped them last time

When a conversation needs a different person, reassign it. The full history moves with it, so the customer never has to repeat themselves.

Step 5: Test it end to end

Before announcing your number, message it from a personal phone and check:

  1. The automation replies to your keywords
  2. The conversation appears in the shared inbox with the right tags
  3. An agent can reply, and you receive it on your phone
  4. Reassigning the conversation works and keeps the history

You're live

That's it: one number, a team inbox, automated first replies and a clear routing plan. From here, add Instagram and Messenger to the same inbox, set up broadcast campaigns for order updates, or connect your backend with the Send API.

Start with the free plan and have your team answering from one inbox today.