WhatsApp and artificial intelligence
WABA (WhatsApp Business Account)
A WABA (WhatsApp Business Account) is the account in which Meta grouped a business's phone numbers, templates, billing and webhooks on the WhatsApp Business Platform. Since 23 September 2026 Meta has been splitting it in two: a WhatsApp account and a Messaging account.
Also known asWhatsApp Business Account · WhatsApp Business account · business account on WhatsApp
What it is exactly
On the WhatsApp Business Platform everything hangs off a Meta business portfolio. Inside it, the WABA put everything in a single box: phone numbers, templates, billing, webhooks and partner access. Meta spells out the consequence: working with several providers meant having one phone number per provider, and the same business showed up as several contacts on the phone of whoever was writing to it.
The new model separates the business's identity from everything else. The WhatsApp account holds one phone number, the profile and the catalogue. The Messaging account holds the templates, billing and webhooks, and each provider gets its own. The WABA ID does not change: it now identifies the Messaging account, and calls to the Cloud API keep working. Meta started on 23 September 2026 and is extending it to every business by mid-October; until it reaches a given business, WhatsApp Manager keeps showing that business the familiar WABA.
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that the account belongs to the provider who set it up. Meta says the WhatsApp account, the one holding the number, is always the client's, that the client can share it with several providers, and that people writing in see a single contact. So when signing up, the useful question is whose name the business portfolio is in; onboarding is usually done with Embedded Signup.
Sources
Related terms
- WhatsApp Business PlatformThe WhatsApp Business Platform is Meta's platform for organisations to handle WhatsApp at scale from their own software, through the Cloud API, instead of by hand from the WhatsApp Business app on a phone. It comes with its own system of approved templates and sending rules.
- WhatsApp Cloud APIThe Cloud API is the WhatsApp Business Platform API that software uses to send and receive WhatsApp messages. Meta hosts it in the cloud: outgoing messages go through the Graph API and incoming ones arrive by webhook. It replaced the On-Premises API, which Meta retired on 23 October 2025.