Want to know how to use WhatsApp business with multiple users? Or can WhatsApp business be used on multiple devices or phones? This first-hand how-to guide answers all your questions about using WhatsApp Business with multiple users. It includes how to set up WhatsApp Business multiple users and use it for marketing, sales and support.

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WhatsApp Business Multiple Users for Different Business Sizes

You can use WhatsApp Business with multiple users in two different ways. Through the WhatsApp Business App or WhatsApp Business API, also known as WhatsApp Business Platform. Each platform has its capabilities and restrictions therefore making it suitable for different business sizes.

WhatsApp Business App

The WhatsApp Business App features and capabilities are designed with small businesses in mind. The setup process is straightforward and businesses can use the app for free. Plus, it includes business tools like greeting and away messages, WhatsApp Catalog, WhatsApp Pay and quick replies.

Most importantly, WhatsApp Business App allows you to use WhatsApp Business for multiple users on up to five devices, including four linked devices and one phone at a time for each number. This allows more agents to respond to lead and customer messages from anywhere.

In 2022, WhatsApp released a paid plan, WhatsApp Business Premium, which enables you to connect up to 10 devices and assign chats to specific agents. However, this plan is only available for Android users and in certain countries.

If your team size stays the same, having 5 to 10 devices connected to one WhatsApp number is sufficient. As your business grows, you’ll need a more sophisticated platform to handle more agents, contacts and messages. This is where WhatsApp API comes in.

WhatsApp API

For larger businesses with teams of agents, it’s important to handle high volumes of messages fast. They’ll also need to reply to all contacts promptly with tools like AI and advanced automation and track their team workload and organization performance.

However, these additional features are only available to WhatsApp API accounts when connected to a customer conversation management software like respond.io.

WhatsApp Business App or WhatsApp API?

So, which WhatsApp product is for you? The flow chart below will help you determine the most suitable WhatsApp Business product for either micro-small businesses and SMEs and large businesses planning to use WhatsApp with multiple users.

Next, we'll examine each product's features and the associated pros and cons in detail.

WhatsApp Business App: For Micro and Small Businesses

If you're a micro-small business owner considering WhatsApp Business App, read on to find out how to use WhatsApp Business with multiple agents on the app.

How to Use WhatsApp Business App with Multiple Users

Any business can use the WhatsApp Business App with multiple devices or users. To link a device, follow the steps below.

1. Go to your WhatsApp Business App.
2. Tap the More Options icon with three vertical dots.
3. Click Linked Devices.
4. Click LINK A DEVICE.
5. Scan the QR code.

You can get the QR code on WhatsApp Business Web or WhatsApp Business Desktop App on your companion devices. Simply go to https://web.whatsapp.com/ or open the desktop app, and a QR code will be displayed on your screen for you.

The steps above work on Android devices. For iPhone users, go to WhatsApp Settings in Step 2 and follow the rest of the instructions above. Upon linking, your team can access WhatsApp Business on your additional devices without the need to keep your phone connected.

Limitations of WhatsApp Business App for Multiple Users

Using WhatsApp Business App with multiple devices is convenient for small businesses, but this is only a temporary solution or feasible when your business is starting. As your business expands, you’ll soon encounter problems with using linked devices, such as:

• Not knowing who sent or replied to a message
• Multiple agents may work with the same customer from different devices, creating confusion for your customers
• Inability to assign chats to agents
• Can’t ensure all customers have been answered
• No way to organize chats, such as marking a chat as resolved
• Can’t track agent workload or performance
• Can’t connect to a CRM, as WhatsApp Business app doesn’t support any CRM integration
• No user access controls and all the data can be accessed by every agent
• Not able to implement advanced automation

Because of these reasons, using the app is only something you should do as a temporary solution before moving to WhatsApp API.

WhatsApp API: For SMEs & Large Businesses

Larger businesses with more sophisticated needs require a platform with more advanced features to solve the WhatsApp Business multiple users problem. For that, we need to use WhatsApp API connected to a messaging software.

WhatsApp API is designed for SMEs and large businesses that want to scale and manage their teams, messages and customers more effectively. Here are some basic things you need to know about WhatsApp API:

• It has a 24-hour customer service window
• It's not free
• You need to get a WhatsApp API account

Signing up for WhatsApp API with respond.io is quick and easy. The entire process takes only a few minutes – from linking your Facebook Business Account (now known as Meta Business Portfolio) to adding a phone number. Because respond.io is also a customer conversation management software, you can start messaging customers right after creating your WhatsApp API account.

While it’s not required to get started, growing businesses may want to get verified as an official account with WhatsApp green tick.

Next, let’s discuss setting up WhatsApp API with multiple users on respond.io.

How to Use WhatsApp Business API with Multiple Users in 4 Steps

Managing multiple customer conversations with a large team can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be. From setting up WhatsApp Business API with respond.io to creating chatbots, here’s everything you need to know.

Step 1: Access to WhatsApp Business API with Respond.io

Setting up WhatsApp Business API with respond.io is a quick and easy process.

1. Start by creating an account on the respond.io platform.

2. Navigate to Settings > Channels. Then, click Add Channel, select WhatsApp Business Platform (API), and press Connect.

3. Click Get Started to complete the eligibility checks, then click Connect With Facebook and log in to your Facebook account. Ensure you grant permissions for respond.io to manage your WhatsApp Business account and billing.

4. Select an existing Meta Business account or create a new one, then create a WhatsApp Business profile by entering your business details.

5. Enter your WhatsApp phone number, select a verification method (SMS or call) and input the 6-digit verification code received to complete the setup.

Step 2: Adding Users

To add users to respond.io, follow these three simple steps.

1. Navigate to Settings > Workspace Settings > Users.

2. Click Add User to invite agents to the Workspace using their email address.

When adding Users, you can give them an appropriate User Role. This allows you to limit the level of access of each collaborator invited to the platform. You can choose between three User Roles:

• Owner: Owners have access to all modules, and they can manage the Workspace settings.
• Manager: Like Owners, Managers have access to all modules. However, they have restricted access to Workspace Settings.
• Agent: Agents only have access to the Messages module.

3. Create Teams to group your agents for better visibility after they accept your invitation.

For detailed guidance on how to add and edit team members' profiles, invite new users, view team members and their roles, create new teams and manage them effectively, explore our comprehensive help center article.

Step 3: Assigning Conversations to Yourself or Team Members

To either assign or unassign a conversation, all you need to do is the following.

1. Access the Assignment dropdown in the top-right corner of the Inbox module.

2. Use the dropdown to assign or reassign an agent to a contact.

3. Search for an agent by name in the search box or select from the list of available agents with their avatars.

Step 4: Collaborate on WhatsApp Business Conversations with a Team

Respond.io can help teams collaborate efficiently when handling WhatsApp Business conversations.

1. Add internal notes to provide context or updates visible only to team members, ensuring smooth handovers between agents.

2. Use tags to organize conversations with labels like "Urgent" or "Follow-Up" to categorize and prioritize them for faster resolution.

That's all. You're all set! Now let's look at how you can automate WhatsApp Business chat for multiple users.

Automate WhatsApp Business Chat for Multiple Users

What if you and your team are not available to chat with your customers? Worry not, these are the things you can do to automate your chat while your team is away.

Automate Chat with AI Agent

Using AI agent on respond.io allows businesses to handle routine queries with ease, freeing up live agents to focus on more complex tasks. Here’s how you can set it up.

1. Add the AI Agent step to a Workflow at the point where you want an AI agent to handle a conversation.

2. Select a goal for the AI Agent, either Answer Questions or Collect Information.

3. Enter the information you want to collect or select a knowledge source to equip the AI Agent with what it needs to know.

4. Test the AI Agent to ensure it recognizes queries and responds correctly.

To learn more about Respond AI in detail, check out our Help Center! Alternatively, for a simpler alternative, you can consider using Workflows without AI.

Set Auto-Replies When No Users are Available

Sending automated welcome and away messages when your live agents are unavailable ensures customers receive instant replies and clear communication at all times.

1. Navigate to Settings > Workflows on your respond.io dashboard.

2. Click + Add Workflow and select the "Welcome Message" or "Away Message" template.

3. Customize the message content to match your brand’s tone and provide relevant information.

4. Use the "Date & Time" step to define business hours for when the away message should trigger.

5. Save and activate the workflow to enable automated responses.

4 Benefits of Using WhatsApp Multiple Users with WhatsApp API and Respond.io

Making WhatsApp work for multiple users isn’t just practical. It's a necessity if you want to enhance your team's communication with customers. But when it comes to using the WhatsApp API with respond.io, know it introduces a whole new level of efficiency to your operations.

#1 Simplify Your Messaging Workflow

Respond.io offers a unified inbox where your entire team can view and track all WhatsApp chats. This helps prevent confusion over who has responded to a customer and reduces the risk of missed messages, keeping your team on the same page at all times.

#2 Assign Roles That Suit Your Team

Not every team member needs the keys to the city. You can designate specific roles, such as Agent, Manager or Owner, for team members, providing them with the appropriate level of access and ensuring everyone has exactly what they need without unnecessary permissions.

#3 Personalize Customer Conversations

Respond.io integrates seamlessly with your CRM, so your team can see customer history and preferences at a glance. This means your replies aren't just quick. They can be informed and personalized, helping you engage in more meaningful conversations.

#4 A Tools That Scales

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a small brand today or a global powerhouse tomorrow. Respond.io is fully capable of growing alongside your business. As you scale, you can easily add users, automate more workflows, handle higher message loads and more without ever losing your momentum.

Supported Use Cases for WhatsApp API on Respond.io

Next, we'll show how you can use WhatsApp Business with multiple users on respond.io for different use cases, including sales, customer service, WhatsApp marketing with click-to-chat ads, re-marketing with WhatsApp Broadcast.

AI-Powered Sales and Customer Support

With respond.io’s Workflows automation builder, you can use WhatsApp API for sales and support with multiple agents. You can easily set up WhatsApp auto replies, including sending your WhatsApp catalog and greeting messages to make a strong first impression on new customers.

Additionally, you can send away messages when no agents are online or when customers message your business outside of operating hours.

For a more advanced alternative, anytime there’s an inbound message, you can use AI Agent, an AI-powered chatbot, to serve as the initial responder to handle routine inquiries or route customers to the right team based on the customers’ profile, conversation purpose and customer life cycle.

Once the Workflows for inbound messages are set up, you can prioritize important customers first and ensure no customers are left unattended by assigning them to the most relevant or available agent on your team. This is especially powerful for a sales use case as fewer customers will drop off, leading to higher conversion rates.

Generate Leads and Boost Sales

Do you run WhatsApp click-to-chat ads and struggle with qualifying leads and handling a large volume of inbound messages? With respond.io, you can collect lead information and qualify them faster by asking a question. Plus, you can increase lead conversion by replying to them promptly with Respond AI Agent.

While you get a 72-hour messaging window instead of a 24-hour messaging window when leads message you from WhatsApp ads, it's still essential to have a plan for restarting conversations after the window has closed.

One way to reconnect with leads en masse is to use message templates for WhatsApp bulk messages. This enables you to send pre-approved messages to your leads even after the 72-hour window has elapsed.

Broadcast Promotions Instantly or Schedule Them in Advance

WhatsApp broadcasts work great for retargeting campaigns. It’s as simple as selecting the contacts who have opted in to hear from you, creating message content with media attachments and adding a Call-to-Action or Quick Reply Button. Once you're done, simply send or schedule a WhatsApp message in advance. schedule a broadcast in advance.

Once the leads start replying, you'll receive a high volume of messages. But remember, you can now manage your messages more effectively and have teams of agents replying to them at the same time on different devices.

Respond Smart and Fast with Respond AI

Thanks to Respond AI Prompts, you can effortlessly translate your messages into over 90 languages, ensuring effective communication across borders. With just one click, it makes your communication more precise by adjusting the tone of your messages and correcting spelling and grammar mistakes.

You can also use AI Assist to generate responses to your incoming customer messages automatically. The AI crafts replies based on the knowledge sources you provide, ensuring each response is relevant and contextually appropriate.

Boost Your Team's Productivity and Collaboration With a Shared WhatsApp Inbox

While we have solved the WhatsApp Business multiple users problem, businesses still need to understand their customers better and ensure everyone in their team is performing.

Respond.io’s Reports Module enables real-time monitoring of your agents' performance and workload. You'll know exactly how many conversations an agent is currently handling and if they're efficient at closing conversations based on their resolution time. You can even see how agents are performing relative to each other.

Plus, respond.io has specially designed tools to facilitate collaboration among agents. Handy features like adding Comments and tagging another colleague in a conversation allow agents to collaborate, respond and resolve Conversations faster. Comments are essentially internal notes where you can document an issue or situation for you and your Team to refer to when necessary.

Also, our Contact Merge feature allows you to have a 360-degree view of your customers with our omnichannel inbox. This helps your Agents reply to customers more efficiently when all the Contact information is readily available from one centralized dashboard.

Last but not least, stay connected to your customers even when you're on the go with the respond.io mobile app. No more missing a conversation. Instead, get notified each time you receive a new message or whenever someone assigns you a new Contact.

Now that you know what respond.io has to offer, let’s go through some real-world examples of how businesses use WhatsApp business on multiple devices with respond.io.

Real Case Studies: How Respond.io Empowers Businesses with WhatsApp Multiple Users

Respond.io has empowered businesses to handle high volumes of conversations effectively by expanding WhatsApp multiuser access. Due to its experience in helping businesses worldwide grow, Meta has vetted the company for its expertise and recognized it as badged Meta Business Partner.

We have interviewed some respond.io customers to learn how they take their businesses to the next level with WhatsApp's multi-user functionality. Below, we’ve compiled a few success stories that will inspire you to kickstart your WhatsApp multiple users journey.

How Lamarsa Coffee Improves Response Time

Lamarsa Coffee, a Malaysia-based coffee equipment retailer, was handling customer communication over WhatsApp Business App. However, the WhatsApp Business App is limited to one phone and four other devices, which means only a few agents can answer conversations at one time.

As its business expanded, Lamarsa Coffee found it challenging to handle the high volume of conversations over WhatsApp. To solve the WhatsApp Business multiple users problem, Lamarse Coffee migrated to WhatsApp API and connected it to respond.io for greater multiuser access.

Through enhanced WhatsApp multi-user functionality and respond.io’s advanced Workflows, Lamarsa Coffee has successfully improved first response times by a whopping 38%!

How 800 Storage Handles a High Volume of Conversations

Dubai-based self-storage company, 800 Storage, had limited multiuser access to WhatsApp Business App. This results in slow response time, which in turn affects business growth. By upgrading to WhatsApp API and integrating it with respond.io, 800 Storage is now ready to handle a high volume of conversations through WhatsApp multi-team access.

Thanks to multiuser access for WhatsApp, agent performance has significantly improved across the board, with first response times reduced by 30% to 1 minute and 56 seconds!

You’ve made it to the end! Are you ready to use WhatsApp business with multiple users? Try respond.io and its WhatsApp Business API for free!

Getting Started with WhatsApp Business for Multiple Users

Getting up and running with WhatsApp Business for multiple users is easier than you might think. If you’re a smaller business, the WhatsApp Business App may be just enough for your needs in the short run. Download the app, link up to five devices and you’re good to go. It’s free, simple to set up, and even useful features to help you get started!

However, if your business is growing (or plans to), then the WhatsApp API is your best bet. Designed with larger teams in mind, it offers unlimited users, powerful automation and integrates smoothly with your existing CRMs. All you need to do is sign up through a platform like respond.io. The setup is quick, and you’ll be managing messages in no time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is WhatsApp Business multiple users free?

The WhatsApp Business App allows free use on up to five devices. If you wish to use WhatsApp on up to 10 devices, you can opt for a WhatsApp Premium subscription.

For businesses requiring more than ten users, WhatsApp API is the solution. This, however, involves WhatsApp’s conversation-based pricing and the use of a messaging software, which incurs additional costs.

Can I use WhatsApp Business on 2 phones?

The WhatsApp Business App supports up to five devices, including four linked devices and one phone per account, but not on two phones simultaneously.

How to use WhatsApp Business on multiple devices?

1. Open your WhatsApp Business App on your primary phone.
2. Tap the More Options menu (three vertical dots) in the top-right corner.
3. Select Linked Devices.
4. Choose Link a Device.
5. Scan the QR code displayed on the screen of the device you want to link

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Further Reading

If you enjoyed this hands-on guide to WhatsApp Business Multiple Users and you'd like to learn more about WhatsApp Business, please check out our articles on:

• The Ultimate Guide to WhatsApp Business API
• Everything You Need to Know About WhatsApp Cloud API
• WhatsApp API Pricing: The Ultimate Guide to WhatsApp Business API Pricing