Getting started with Vonage's WhatsApp Business Account : Hosted Embedded Sign-Up for Partners' End Customers

Objective

From April 1, 2025, Vonage partners who resell WhatsApp can leverage an automated embedded sign-up tool and onboard their customers’ WhatsApp Business Accounts (WABAs) in just 5 minutes.

This knowledge base provides instructions on how to leverage that solution and get your customers up and running as quickly as possible.

For a visual walkthrough, please review this video tutorial to guide you through the hosted embedded sign-up process step by step.

Applies To

• WhatsApp Partners/Tech Providers

Prerequisites

To leverage the partner-embedded sign-up solution, you must comply with the following:

• Be an active Vonage partner:  If you are not yet a partner, please reach out here
• Become a Tech provider: You must complete Meta's Tech Provider Enrollment program. Please refer to this guide here.

       Note: If you are an existing Vonage partner but have not yet registered in the Tech Provider Program, please do so. If you would like to partner with Vonage, please reach out here

• Administrator access required for your customers' Meta Business Portfolio: You need to have administrative access to your customers’ Meta Business Portfolio. This is important, as only users with administrator permissions can create WhatsApp Accounts. If you need help in getting the administrative access, please follow this link and submit the “Add/Remove users to WABA” request so the Vonage support team can help you.

Procedure

Please follow the Step-by-Step instructions below to complete the Embedded sign-up process for the Customers referred by Hosted Partners:

1. Generate URL

To start using the Hosted ES(Hosted Embedded Sign-Up) flow, the partner(tech provider) will need to generate a URL by making the following post request:

https://api.nexmo.com/v1/channel-manager/whatsapp/tp-registration/url.

They can use any API platform they wish to make this post. Please see this documentation for more information about this step.

Sample Request Body

{

    "solution_id": "123456789111213",

    "api_key": "aaaaaaa",                    // Optional

    "ttl": 3600                              // Optional

}

Note: The above solution ID should be the partner's Solution ID, which they got from Tech provider enrollment and "api_key" should be the partner's customer's sub API Key.

Once the above request has been sent, if the data entered was correct, you will receive a response containing an ID and URL (See below).

Lastly, please click on the URL to be redirected to the Hosted ES flow.

Sample Response

{
“id”: “3amb0119-0196-42d1-8fb5-55a98s133546”
"url": “https://tools.vonage.com/wa/partners/onboard?token=fhdhhdJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9.eyJleHAiOjE3MjU5Njc1OTYsImp0aSI6ImQ1MmJhNmFjLWYxZjktNDdmNC05MTR_cFT1bVfkDhP-wgpKZibSbUoh9z-9KGD-wsmHxi0h7tTidpVhPNShfC5jmgiHtOQKXXv5NWb9OqoUraOMMpqCdNdXoN3ao-PeZX7axyYW_FQ6CeV9gDEPhAZ4urTi0uW4mCYGl3ULmA9Ps92r_wi2DJyRE_Kx2KahWtQd51yVpU6FfXgMb4odREEccDctT1Peo09wKgwBa1wsOkD7rrvkoQPqZ00VXcqOY1_LOO5tq4WJaKqtxX-U7VtDo9qyVUl8pdegZW6QWChQzGN4PkqXXLWcBlyrCtAYdhtWG8q6NM_6bARRjcGJlj0tQvE0PZ9AtafAQSPpOll5lcnUK8Ds”
}

2. Meta Registration: Continue with Meta

The URL response will take you to the main Meta registration page. Click on the “Continue with Meta” blue button to begin onboarding your customer’s WABA.

3. Log in to Meta

Meta will identify your existing Facebook account so you can start the flow using that one.

4. Share permissions with Vonage

By getting started, you are permitting Vonage to manage your account information as well as billing information.

5. Select a Business portfolio or create a new one

Select the Business portfolio under which you want the new WABA and number to be associated.

• If you select an existing Meta Business Portfolio, the business name, website, and country fields will be automatically filled from the information provided in the “Business portfolio information”
• If you want to create a new Meta Business Portfolio, you will have to enter a Business name, Website and Country fields

6. Create a WhatsApp for Business Account (WABA)

  Please follow the steps below to create the new WABA.

         6.1.  Select the option “Create WhatsApp for Business Account” 

   6.2. Provide the account and Display name, and the Business sector the company belongs to

7. Provision your number

Please follow the steps below to connect your number to the new WhatsApp Business Account.

          7.1. Enter your number

              You can use either:

•    A number purchased from Vonage in your Vonage dashboard, or
•   An existing number owned by your customer

     Phone number Requirements: You’ll need the phone number you want to use for WhatsApp. This can be either a Vonage LVN or your own number.

  In either case, the phone number must follow the requirements below

• Not already being used elsewhere on WhatsApp - either on the personal or business app.
• If your number needs to be migrated from another WhatsApp Business API Provider, please refer to our Migration Guide: How to Migrate a WhatsApp Phone Number
• Accept VOICE calls or SMS (for Contact Centre numbers, the IVR system must be disabled or intercepted to complete the 2FA)
• Not a short code or toll-free number

 Troubleshooting Tip:  

Note: If the number is already registered to an existing WhatsApp account, you will receive an error message as shown in the screenshot below. 

Please follow the above Migration guide as the number will need to be deleted, and 2FA needs to be disabled from your previous WABA(if it is from another BSP, they need to do this for you) before it can be registered with the current new WABA.

    7.2. Verify your number by selecting the preferred verification method

There are two different mechanisms your customer can use to retrieve the six-digit One-Time Password (OTP).

SMS or Voice call. As you see in the screenshot below, you will need to select the option you would like to use to retrieve the OTP after entering the number.

     7.2.1.  Receiving an OTP via SMS

• If they are using a Vonage number and opted to receive the OTP via SMS, you can check the six-digit code in your Vonage Customer Dashboard account, under the “SMS Logs” section, as shown below.

Select “Inbound” as the direction and Search.

• If it’s your customer's own Number: The OTP will be sent as a text message to the number they entered under the "Phone number" section.

   7.2.2.  Receiving an OTP via voice call

If you have opted for a voice call, you will receive an automated phone call that reads the 6-digit code aloud. 

If it’s a Vonage Number: Your customer might need to set up a call forwarding rule to a phone number you can answer. Please refer to this guide on How can I handle inbound calls to my voice-enabled virtual number? to forward the OTP call from your LVN to your phone number.

If it is a Customer's Number, confirm you have physical access to the customer’s phone. Wait for the message or call, retrieve the code, and continue with the next steps below.

7.3.  Complete the Verification process by entering the OTP code 

Once you receive the OTP, please enter it in the boxes and click “Next” as shown below

7.4. Complete the WABA(WhatsApp Business Account) setup

After entering the code, you will be prompted to the next screen, as below, which explains the parameters that your new WhatsApp Business Account will start with.

Please, click “Finish” to complete the onboarding process.

7.5. Receive confirmation

Once you complete the setup by clicking "Finish", you will receive confirmation: Congratulations! You are now ready to start using WhatsApp Business with Vonage!

Frequently Asked Questions

• What do I do if I face an issue during the process?          .

  • If you face an issue during the process, please raise a support ticket through this link  

• How long does it take to connect a number?

  • It takes around 5 minutes to connect a number

• Do I need to link the number with the external application in the Vonage Dashboard after the connection is completed?

  • No, the number is automatically linked.

Additional Information

Tech provider enrollment

WhatsApp Hosted Embedded Signup Flow