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Connect a WhatsApp Business number, your Facebook Pages or your Instagram professional account, and their messages become conversations in Aide. Your agent answers them, and your team replies from the same inbox as email and chat. Available on every plan.

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Connect

Go to Integrations, open the Messaging tab, and choose WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Instagram.
  • WhatsApp: choose or create a WhatsApp Business account and add a number. A number already on the WhatsApp Business app can keep using the app alongside Aide.
  • Messenger: choose the Pages Aide answers.
  • Instagram: choose the Facebook Page your professional account is linked to. Link one in Meta Business Suite first if it isn’t.
Each number, Page or account becomes an inbox under the integration. Once connected, it has its own card on the Channels page, and you can filter the inbox by it.

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Go live

A new number, Page or account starts in shadow: it gets your most recently deployed agent but only watches until you take it live. The “Choose an agent and go live” banner explains how. To test with your own account first, use Test senders: an Instagram @username or the ID Meta gives the customer on your Page or account works, as well as an email or phone number.

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The 24-hour window

Meta only allows replies within 24 hours of the customer’s latest message.
  • Aide’s agent replies only inside that window.
  • On Messenger and Instagram, teammates can reply for up to 7 days when “Human agent replies” is on in the inbox’s settings and Meta has granted the Human Agent permission.
  • On WhatsApp, after 24 hours only approved templates can be sent, which Aide doesn’t send yet.
The conversation header counts down the time left (“Reply window”, then “Human agent replies”), and the reply box locks with the reason once replies can’t be sent. Internal notes always work. A reply refused because the window closed goes back into the reply box.

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Messages and files

  • Customers’ photos, voice notes and files are saved with the message, up to 25 MB each. Photos show inline; videos and voice notes play in place.
  • Your team’s files are sent after the reply’s text: WhatsApp takes up to 100 MB, Messenger up to 25 MB, and Instagram takes images, video, audio and PDFs. A file the channel can’t take is refused before anything is sent.
  • Replies show Sent, Delivered and Read (Seen on Instagram). Reactions show under the message.
  • A reply a teammate sends from the WhatsApp Business app or Meta’s inbox is recorded in Aide and hands the conversation to people.
  • A WhatsApp customer is linked to the Shopify customer with the same phone number.

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Staying connected

Aide checks each connection hourly and shows when one needs reconnecting. Each connection has its own disconnect; disconnecting Facebook also disconnects the Instagram accounts linked through it. AI replies on these channels count toward your usage, listed per channel. WhatsApp conversations are never used to improve Aide across workspaces.