For years the choice was blunt: stay on the free WhatsApp Business app, or move your number to the API and lose the app. Coexistence removes that either-or. Your number stays in the Business app for one-to-one chats, and the same number also runs on the WhatsApp Cloud API, so a team inbox or CRM can work on it too.
What coexistence is, in plain terms
One business number is active in two places at once: the WhatsApp Business app on your phone, and the Cloud API through a platform your team logs into. Messages and contacts are shared between them, so a customer sees one continuous conversation with your business.
You cannot switch it on inside the app yourself. It is set up through an eligible provider, which onboards your number and runs the history sync. That provider is either a Meta Solution Partner or a Tech Provider. We are a registered Tech Provider, which is why we read Meta’s onboarding documentation closely. Everything below comes from that documentation, checked on 30 September 2026.
Requirements
- WhatsApp Business app version 2.24.17 or higher on the business phone.
- A provider that supports coexistence. Meta’s onboarding page we read does not list supported countries, so ask your provider to confirm your number’s country before you plan around it.
- Time to finish the sync. You have 24 hours to synchronise message history during onboarding. If it is not done in that window, the number is offboarded and the flow has to be completed again.
What syncs, and what does not
Meta states that all chat messages from the most recent six months can be synchronised, in three phases: day 0 to 1, day 1 to 90, and day 90 to 180. All contacts with a WhatsApp number can be synchronised too. The table shows what happens to everything else.
| Feature on the number | With coexistence |
|---|---|
| One-to-one chats | Work in both the Business app and the API platform |
| Recent chat history | Up to the most recent 6 months can sync |
| Contacts | All contacts with a WhatsApp number can sync |
| Group chats | Not supported. Groups are not synchronised |
| Broadcast lists | Existing lists become read-only |
| Disappearing messages, view-once messages, live location | Disabled in one-to-one chats |
| Voice and video calls, channels, some business tools | Not supported |
| Sending speed | Fixed at 20 messages per second while the number is used on both |
Coexistence is a good fit for a team that lives in one-to-one customer chats. It is a poor fit for one that runs on groups and broadcast lists.
Is coexistence free?
The messaging cost follows where the message is sent from. Meta’s documentation says messages sent by the business from the WhatsApp Business app continue to be free, while messages sent through the Cloud API are subject to Cloud API pricing. Your platform or provider may also charge its own fee, separately from Meta.
Since 1 July 2025 Meta prices per message and charges when a template message is delivered. From 1 October 2026 it also charges for service messages (replies inside an open 24-hour window) after the first 1,000 a month per phone number. See the October 2026 service message charges and Meta’s pricing page.
A 7-question fit test
Answer these for the number you want to connect. Any “yes” in the second column is a limit to plan around, not necessarily a reason to stop.
| Question | If yes, then |
|---|---|
| Is the Business app older than 2.24.17? | Update it first. You cannot onboard until it is current |
| Do customers reach you in WhatsApp groups? | Groups will not sync. Keep them out of the plan |
| Do you send to broadcast lists from the app? | Those lists become read-only. Move sending to the platform |
| Do you rely on disappearing messages or live location with customers? | They are disabled in one-to-one chats |
| Do customers phone you through WhatsApp calls on this number? | Calls are not supported through coexistence |
| Would you ever send more than 20 messages a second? | That is the ceiling. It is far above what a 5 to 30 person service team sends in normal work |
| Can someone finish onboarding and the history sync within 24 hours? | If not, schedule it for a day when they can, or the flow restarts |
When to skip coexistence
If groups, broadcast lists or calls are how your customers reach you, coexistence will remove things you use every day. In that case an API-only setup, with staff working from the team inbox, is cleaner. If your work is quotes and enquiries in one-to-one chats, coexistence lets the owner keep replying from the app while the team works from a shared inbox.
The part a shared inbox does not fix
Putting a team on the same number, in the app or on the API, does not decide who owns an enquiry or how long it may wait. An enquiry that arrives at 17:40 on a Saturday can be seen by four people and answered by none. We built Provixon Connect around that gap: every enquiry becomes a case with one named owner, a working-hours clock and a recorded outcome.
On coexistence specifically: Connect is in pilot build, and whether an owner can keep replying from the Business app on a given number is something we test on that number and those devices before promising it. We would rather tell you it does not fit than assume it does.