WhatsApp Calling

You can now call your contacts — and receive their calls — directly over WhatsApp from Vixiees, without leaving the contact's page.

1. Turn on WhatsApp calls for your account

Before placing or receiving WhatsApp calls, this needs to be turned on. You turn it on once for the whole account, and it applies to all your connected WhatsApp Business numbers.

• Go to Settings › Integrations › WhatsApp › Settings.
• In the Calls card, turn on the WhatsApp calls switch and click Update.
• Before turning them on, you're asked to confirm: WhatsApp charges calls by country through your WhatsApp Business account, so check it for the rates that apply.
• To turn them off, switch it off and click Update. You're also asked to confirm: calls are turned off on all your numbers and your team won't be able to make or receive WhatsApp calls.
• Numbers you connect after turning calls on have calls on too.
• Only account admins and users with access to the Integrations settings can change this setting.

Call status for each number

In Settings › Integrations › WhatsApp › Phone numbers there's no longer a per-number toggle. With calls on, the Calls column shows whether each number can call:

• Available: the number can make and receive WhatsApp calls.
• Unavailable: calls aren't on for this number. Check the number in WhatsApp Manager, then turn WhatsApp calls off and on again to retry.

Calls are billed per minute, and only once the contact answers.

2. Request call permission from a contact

Meta requires the contact's consent before a salesperson can call them over WhatsApp. There are two ways to request it.

From the contact's page

• Open the contact and click the WhatsApp button (next to the regular call button).
• Write a short message explaining why you'd like to call them and click Request.
• The contact receives the message on WhatsApp with a button to accept or decline.

If the contact declines, the call button won't activate — but it's not a permanent no, you can request it again anytime from the same button. The permission the contact grants can also be temporary (expires after a few days) or permanent, depending on what they choose in the WhatsApp prompt; if a temporary one lapses without being renewed, the call button turns off on its own, no action needed on your end.

If the contact doesn't answer the request within 24 hours, the WhatsApp button offers to request permission again and you can send a new request.

The permission is saved for the WhatsApp number the contact gave it on. If that number can't call anymore (for example, you removed it or its calls show as Unavailable), hovering over the WhatsApp button shows Allowed on another number: click it to ask them for permission again. The same happens if WhatsApp rejects a call because the contact hasn't allowed that number.

Here's what the contact sees on their own WhatsApp: the request message, followed right after by Meta's native prompt asking whether they want to allow calls from your number.

If the contact hasn't written to that number in the last 24 hours

WhatsApp only lets you send the request from the contact's page if the contact has written in the last 24 hours to the WhatsApp number the request goes out from (see step 3). If they haven't (for example, a new contact who has never written to you), clicking the WhatsApp button tells you that you can only ask for permission with a template:

• If you already have approved templates that request call permission, the window lists them. Send one of them from the chat's template picker.
• If you don't have any, the window lets you know and, if you can manage templates, takes you to View templates to create one (see the next section).

WhatsApp limits how many permission requests you can send to the same contact. The window shows how many you have left from the number the request will go out from (for example, "You can send 25 more requests in the next 24 hours"). If you've reached the limit, it tells you when you can send another one and won't let you send more until then.

Only salespeople can request call permission; for other profiles the button is disabled.

From a WhatsApp template

• In Settings › WhatsApp Templates, create or edit a template and tick Request call permission. Under the message, the contact will see WhatsApp's option to allow or decline your calls. Like any template, WhatsApp has to approve it before you can send it.
• Don't confuse it with the Call on WhatsApp button (previously called "Call permission"): that button lets the contact call you by tapping it, but it doesn't ask for permission for you to call them.
• This is the more scalable way to request opt-in from many contacts at once, instead of asking one by one.

Before sending a template with this option, confirm WhatsApp calls are turned on for your account (see step 1).

When you send a template that requests call permission:

• The contact's permission becomes pending, and the WhatsApp button on their page switches to pending right away, without reloading the page — the same as with the direct request.
• If the contact had already granted permission, WhatsApp rejects the message: it shows in the chat as failed, with WhatsApp's error, and the contact keeps their granted permission.

3. Call a contact

Once the contact has accepted, the WhatsApp button on their page becomes active and you can call them with one click, just like a regular call. You'll see the call's status (ringing, in progress) right on the contact's page.

Which number is used to request permission and to call? The permission request goes out from the WhatsApp number you normally message the contact from, whether you send it from the contact's page or chat, a workflow or a task. The call goes out from the number the contact gave permission on, so it doesn't need to match the last number you talked on. Messages and templates keep going out from the same number as before.

The contact's activity history logs every WhatsApp call (answered, missed, or cancelled), just like regular calls.

4. Receiving a call

If a contact calls you over WhatsApp, you get a notification in Vixiees to answer or dismiss the call, and it's automatically routed to the contact's assigned salesperson (or the first one available). You can receive WhatsApp calls on any of your account's numbers.

Conclusion

WhatsApp calls are handled from the same place as the rest of your communication with the contact — no app switching, and the contact's consent always comes first.

Relevant scenarios

For businesses with a high volume of contacts in countries where WhatsApp is the primary channel, requesting call permission through a template (step 2) lets you scale opt-in to hundreds of contacts without relying on a salesperson asking one by one.

If your sales process starts with a WhatsApp call, the template also lets you ask a new contact for permission from the very first contact, without waiting for them to write to you.