Everything you need, step by step.

🚀 Getting started

WatAgent runs inside your WordPress admin. From install to your first WhatsApp message takes about 10 minutes.

1. Install the plugin. Upload the WatAgent zip in Plugins → Add New → Upload, activate it, and a WatAgent menu appears in wp-admin.
2. Connect your WhatsApp number. Go to WatAgent → Settings and sign in with Meta. WatAgent provisions your WhatsApp Business Cloud API connection automatically — no developer needed. Your number stays yours; you pay Meta directly.
3. Send a test message. Open the Team Inbox, start a chat with your own number, and confirm the message arrives on your phone.
4. Turn on your first automation. Enable the welcome flow from the template library, or switch on cart recovery if you run WooCommerce.

Team Inbox

One shared inbox for your whole team. Every conversation lands in a queue — Priority, Active, AI Handling, Unassigned, Mine, or Resolved — so you always know what to work on first.

1. Assign a chat from the conversation header — ownership locks it to one teammate so nobody double-replies.
2. Reply faster with canned replies, approved templates, product catalog cards, media and voice notes — all in the reply bar.
3. Add internal notes your customer never sees — perfect for shift handovers and context.
4. Hand off to AI with the per-chat Bot toggle, and take back control anytime.

AI Chatbot

An AI assistant that answers from your content — not a generic script — and hands off to a human when it's unsure.

1. Connect a provider. In AI Chatbot → Behavior & Guardrails, paste your OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini API key and click Test connection.
2. Build its knowledge. On Knowledge Sources, tick the content types to index (posts, pages, products) and upload files like your returns policy. Click Index now.
3. Set the hand-off confidence. Below this threshold the AI escalates to a human instead of guessing. Start at 40–60%.
4. Rehearse in the Playground. A private test chat — nothing reaches customers. When it answers well, flip AI auto-reply on.

Flow Builder

Visual automations: pick a trigger, connect actions, hit save. 11 triggers, 6 conditions and 22 actions — no code.

1. Start from a template. The library has 17 ready-made flows — welcome greeting, keyword menu, lead capture, feedback survey and more. Preview one, then make it yours.
2. Or build from scratch: drag a trigger (like Keyword) onto the canvas, connect a Send Message action, add tags or agent assignment, and end the flow.
3. Test run before publishing — drafts never touch live customers.
4. Add rules and sequences: rules watch for keywords or events and fire instantly; sequences drip messages over days or weeks after enrollment.

Broadcasts

Bulk campaigns without the spam risk — five guided steps with consent built in.

1. Audience: pick All opted-in, a saved Segment, or paste a Custom list. The estimated reach updates live.
2. Template: choose a Meta-approved template (green badge). Only approved templates can broadcast.
3. Variables: fill each {{n}} placeholder — names, codes, links.
4. Schedule: send now, later, or recurring. Set pacing and turn on quiet hours, frequency caps or a budget cap.
5. Review: the preflight checklist and cost estimate must pass before Launch unlocks.

Cart Recovery

Win back abandoned carts with timed WhatsApp nudges — tracked to the rupee.

1. Set the abandonment threshold (15 minutes by default) — how long a cart sits idle before recovery starts.
2. Configure your steps: up to five messages with your own delays (1h · 24h · 72h by default), each using an approved template. Preview and Test per step.
3. Attach a coupon to the final step — tiered, so you only discount when needed.
4. Watch the dashboard: captured carts, recovery rate and recovered value, with a detail drawer per cart.

WooCommerce automations

Order updates on WhatsApp, automatically — ten lifecycle stages from placed to refunded.

1. Toggle on the stages you want — each maps to an approved template (order_placed_v1, order_shipped_v1, …).
2. Map the variables once: {{1}} → customer name, {{2}} → order ID, and so on. Every message personalizes itself at send time.
3. Send a test against your most recent order, then arm it.
4. Create custom statuses (like "Ready for Pickup") that register natively in WooCommerce and can trigger their own messages — even on a timer.

WhatsApp Ads

Run Click-to-WhatsApp ads and follow every click to the conversation, order and revenue.

1. Connect once: ads reuse your existing WhatsApp token (it needs the ads_management permission — Test connection verifies).
2. Pick your ad account and Page with Load from Meta, and set the default number ads open.
3. Launch campaigns from the dashboard and read ROAS, conversations, orders and AOV per campaign.

Chat Widget

A WhatsApp button on your site that starts conversations before visitors bounce.

1. Pick a template — Classic, Minimal, Bubble, Card, Pill or Vertical tab — then set brand color, position and size with the live preview.
2. Choose triggers: immediately, after N seconds, scroll %, exit intent, click, or cart abandonment.
3. Add display rules: match or exclude URL patterns and devices (show on /shop/*, hide on the blog).
4. Set behavior: pre-filled message, labeled numbers (Sales / Support picker), and GDPR/DPDP consent if you need it.

Templates

Meta-approved message formats — the building blocks for broadcasts and automations.

1. Author from scratch (header, body with variables, footer, up to 10 buttons) with a live phone preview — or start pre-built.
2. Submit to Meta in one click and track approval status: approved, pending, rejected or draft.
3. Keep in sync: one-click sync matches your library to Meta, and each template tracks sent / delivered / read.

Analytics

One dashboard for everything: message trends, busiest hours, flow executions, the broadcast funnel, agent scorecards and WhatsApp-attributed revenue — hourly to monthly, all exportable to CSV.

Integrations

Route every lead where your team already works.

1. Add a destination: Zapier, Make, n8n, Slack, Google Sheets, HubSpot, WooCommerce — or a custom HTTPS webhook (with optional HMAC signing).
2. Pick the events each destination receives: form submissions, new contacts, or both.
3. Send a test and watch the health panel — sent/failed counts surface broken automations immediately.

Security & data

WatAgent is self-hosted: conversations, contacts and API keys live on your server, encrypted with AES-256-GCM. Every account change lands in the audit log, consent is tracked per contact, and system health monitors PHP, WordPress core and background jobs in real time.

🔧 Troubleshooting

The most common issues, with the fastest fixes. Expand any question.