Set up WhatsApp

WhatsApp is one of the most effective ways to reach deskless and frontline employees who don't check a work inbox but almost always carry a phone. Before you can send a single survey over WhatsApp, though, the channel has to be connected and switched on for your account. That's what this guide is about: the provider setup behind WhatsApp, the approved message templates it relies on, the phone-number requirements, and the flag that finally makes WhatsApp appear as a channel on your surveys.

This is the setup side of WhatsApp. Once the channel is live, the day-to-day work of turning it on for a specific survey, what the messages say, and how anonymity is preserved is covered separately in Send surveys via WhatsApp. Read this article first if WhatsApp isn't connected yet; read that one when you're ready to actually distribute.

How WhatsApp delivery works

It helps to understand what's happening behind the scenes before you set it up, because the setup steps map directly onto the moving parts.

When CultureMonkey sends a WhatsApp survey invitation, it doesn't send free-form text. WhatsApp's business rules require that any message a business initiates (as opposed to a reply within an open conversation) uses a template that has been submitted and approved in advance. CultureMonkey sends these through Twilio, which acts as the WhatsApp Business provider. Each message is dispatched from a registered WhatsApp sender number, references an approved template by an identifier, and fills in a few variables such as the employee's name, your account name, and the unique survey link.

So the pieces you're setting up are:

• A Twilio account that owns the connection to WhatsApp.
• A WhatsApp Business sender number that's been registered and verified.
• One or more approved templates for the invitation, the reminder, and (where used) the verification passcode.
• The account flag that tells CultureMonkey the channel is available.
• Clean phone data on your employees so there's a valid destination to send to.

The rest of this article walks through each one.

Who sets this up

WhatsApp setup is an Account Admin concern, but it isn't a toggle you'll find on a settings page inside the product. Registering a WhatsApp Business sender and getting message templates approved happens with the messaging provider (Meta, through Twilio) and takes provider-side review time. Because of that, enabling WhatsApp is done with your CultureMonkey account team as a one-time onboarding step rather than something you flip on yourself.

Step 1: Connect the WhatsApp Business provider

WhatsApp for business isn't sent directly from CultureMonkey's servers to WhatsApp. It flows through Twilio, a messaging platform that's an approved WhatsApp Business Solution Provider. Twilio holds the credentials and the WhatsApp sender, and CultureMonkey calls Twilio to dispatch each message.

At a practical level this means one Twilio connection sits behind WhatsApp delivery, holding:

• An account identifier and auth token that authenticate CultureMonkey's requests.
• A registered WhatsApp sender number, which is the "from" address every employee sees.
• A signing secret used to secure the delivery-status callbacks Twilio sends back (so CultureMonkey knows whether each message was delivered).

This is the same provider that powers SMS in many regions, so if you're also setting up text-message delivery, the two share plumbing. See Set up an SMS provider for how the SMS side is configured and which regions route through Twilio versus other gateways.

Step 2: Register the WhatsApp sender number

Every WhatsApp business message is sent from a verified sender number. This is the number your employees will see the survey invitation come from, and it has to be registered as a WhatsApp Business number with the provider before it can send anything.

A couple of things are worth knowing about the sender number:

• It's the sender, not the recipient. This is separate from the phone numbers on your employee records. The sender number is CultureMonkey's business number; the recipient numbers are your employees'.
• It has to be WhatsApp-enabled and approved. A regular phone number can't send WhatsApp business messages until it's been through WhatsApp Business registration and display-name approval.

Because registering and verifying a WhatsApp sender takes provider-side review, this is handled during setup rather than on demand. Once the sender is live, it's reused across all your WhatsApp surveys.

Step 3: Get the message templates approved

This is the part of WhatsApp setup that's genuinely different from email or SMS, and it's worth understanding.

WhatsApp requires businesses to use pre-approved templates for any message that opens a conversation. You can't compose arbitrary WhatsApp text at survey time and have it delivered. Instead, the wording is registered ahead of time as a template with the provider (in Twilio these are called Content Templates, each identified by a Content SID), submitted to WhatsApp for review, and only usable once approved.

CultureMonkey uses a small set of these approved templates:

At send time, CultureMonkey references the right template by its identifier and passes in the variables (the employee's name, your account name, and their unique survey link). WhatsApp then renders the approved wording with those values filled in. This is why the message an employee receives always follows the approved template layout.

What the default templates say

The approved invitation and reminder templates are short, friendly, and built around the survey link. The invitation introduces the survey, explains it takes about five minutes, and includes the personalized link; the reminder is a lighter nudge with the same link. Both open with the employee's name and reference your organization by name. You'll see the exact wording in the message preview during setup, and it's summarized in Send surveys via WhatsApp.

Step 4: Prepare phone numbers on employee records

The provider connection gives you a way to send; phone numbers give you somewhere to send to. WhatsApp reaches people by phone number, so the channel is only as reliable as the numbers in your employee data.

The single most important detail is the country code. CultureMonkey formats numbers before handing them to the provider, but it can only infer so much:

• A number that already starts with + and a country code (for example +6598765432 or +14155550123) is used as-is.
• A bare 10-digit number with no country code is assumed to be an Indian number and prefixed with +91.
• A longer number with no + simply has one added to the front.

That inference means a 10-digit number from any other country can be misrouted. The safe practice is to store every phone number in full international format, country code included, so nothing has to be guessed. Get this right during setup and you avoid a whole class of "why didn't this person get the survey" questions later.

Step 5: Enable WhatsApp on your account

The final piece is the account setting that makes WhatsApp a live channel. Until it's on, WhatsApp simply doesn't appear as an option anywhere in the product; once it's on, WhatsApp shows up as an available channel across your surveys, alongside email, SMS, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.

Because this flag depends on the provider setup and template approval being complete, it's switched on by your CultureMonkey team as the last step of setup rather than by you from a settings screen.

app.culturemonkey.io/integrations

1. 1Request WhatsApp - tell your CultureMonkey account team you want to add WhatsApp, and which employee groups you plan to reach on it.
2. 2Provider setup - CultureMonkey connects the Twilio-backed WhatsApp Business sender and gets the message templates approved.
3. 3Clean your phone data - make sure every employee you want to reach has a valid phone number in full international format.
4. 4Enable the channel - CultureMonkey switches WhatsApp on for your account, and WhatsApp becomes available on your surveys.
5. 5Send - turn WhatsApp on for a specific survey and launch. See Send surveys via WhatsApp.

How to tell WhatsApp is set up

The clearest signal that setup is complete is simple: WhatsApp shows up as a channel. When you build or configure a survey, WhatsApp appears as a selectable delivery channel, and it's listed among your connected channels in the Integrations area. If you don't see it, the account flag hasn't been switched on yet, which usually means the provider or template setup is still in progress.

If WhatsApp is missing and you expected it to be there, the fastest path is to check with your CultureMonkey account team whether the provider connection and template approval have completed and the account flag has been enabled.

Frequently asked questions

Can I set up WhatsApp myself from the settings page?

Not entirely. The account flag that activates WhatsApp is enabled by your CultureMonkey team, because it depends on provider registration and template approval that happen outside the app. Your part is to request the channel, confirm your audience, and prepare clean phone data.

Why does WhatsApp need "approved templates" when email doesn't?

WhatsApp's business rules require that any message a business initiates uses a template reviewed and approved in advance. This is a WhatsApp platform requirement, not a CultureMonkey one. It's why you can't freely edit WhatsApp wording the way you can with email.

Do I need my own Twilio or WhatsApp Business account?

In the standard setup, no - CultureMonkey provides the Twilio-backed WhatsApp Business connection and sender number. If you have a specific requirement to use your own provider account, raise it with your account team during setup.

Is the WhatsApp sender number the same as my employees' numbers?

No. The sender number is CultureMonkey's registered WhatsApp Business number that messages come from. The recipient numbers are the phone numbers on your employee records that messages go to. Both need to be valid, but they're different things.

Does WhatsApp share setup with SMS?

Partly. Both are phone-based and, in many regions, both route through Twilio. If you're enabling text-message delivery too, see Set up an SMS provider for how that side is configured.

What happens to employees without a phone number?

They can't be reached on WhatsApp and simply won't be contacted on this channel. Numbers without a country code may be misrouted. Cleaning up phone data before launch is the best safeguard.

Where to go next

• Send your first WhatsApp survey: Send surveys via WhatsApp
• Set up text-message delivery too: Set up an SMS provider
• Compare all your channels: An overview of distribution channels