Moving your number from the WhatsApp Business app to the WhatsApp API

Can you move your WhatsApp Business app number to the API?

Yes. Meta documents two routes, and they differ on the app, your old chats and who can carry out the move. Meta's pages bar neither route for businesses in Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Egypt (checked November 2026).

What do you need ready before the move?

Get six things ready before you touch the number. Most can be done while the app keeps working.

How do you move the number, step by step?

Route 1 takes eight steps, and the number stops answering from step 3 until it's registered in step 5.

Route 1: delete and register

1. Export the chats you need, using Export chat inside each chat.
2. Finish the business portfolio, display name and payment method, and pick a quiet hour with your team.
3. In the app, go to Settings, then Account, and choose Delete my account. Messages sent to the number in the meantime are queued.
4. Wait up to 3 minutes, Meta says, for the number to become available.
5. Add the number with the display name you prepared in WhatsApp Manager or your provider's Embedded Signup, and confirm it with the code sent by SMS or call. Your provider or developer then registers it on Cloud API.
6. Watch for Meta's display name review, and fix the name against its guidelines if Meta rejects it.
7. Submit your first templates. Meta's review can take up to 24 hours.
8. Check that the number shows as Connected in WhatsApp Manager, and test a message, a reply and a staff handover before you put the number in your ads.

Route 2: Meta's keep-the-app option

1. Update the WhatsApp Business app to version 2.24.17 or later.
2. Open your provider's Embedded Signup link, choose to connect your existing WhatsApp Business app account and enter the number.
3. In the app, tap Connect on Meta's message, confirm if you want to share your chat history, and paste the code.
4. Keep the app open during the sync: the provider has 24 hours to sync your chats, or you repeat the flow.
5. Re-link your supported devices, because onboarding unlinks all of them.

What happens to your chats and the app after the move?

What happens to your chats and the app depends on the route. Deleting and registering loses the history and ends app use on the number. Meta's keep-the-app option keeps the app for one-to-one chats, but some of its features change.

Route 1

• Meta says the old messages are lost, and the number can't be used in the app again unless you deregister it from Cloud API.
• WhatsApp's Help Center adds that deleting the account erases the message history and the Google Account backup, and WhatsApp can't restore chats from a deleted account.
• An exported chat is a text file for your records. It can't be imported back.

Route 2

• One-to-one chats from the last 6 months sync if you agree to share them, and new messages appear in both the app and the provider's system.
• Group chats don't sync. Broadcast lists are disabled, and existing ones become read-only.
• Disappearing messages, view once and live location are turned off in one-to-one chats.
• Calls, the catalog, and greeting and away messages keep working in the app but aren't supported on Cloud API.
• Keep using the app on the main phone: Meta disconnects the number from the platform if the primary device is inactive for about 14 days.
• Messages you send from the app stay free. Messages sent through Cloud API follow Meta's pricing.

How long is the number offline during the move?

Meta publishes no total time for the move. It gives three clear time frames, and the rest depends on its reviews and your provider's speed.

• Deleting the account: the number is free within 3 minutes at most, and incoming messages are queued.
• Keep-the-app option: onboarding and sync take several minutes, and the app keeps working.
• Reviews: up to 24 hours for a template and up to 14 business days for a verification decision, which you needn't wait for.

In route 2, a customer who writes just before onboarding can only get a template reply through Cloud API, since the window opens only for messages after onboarding.

So move in a quiet hour, tell your team, and have someone watch incoming messages for the first hour afterwards.

Where HumAI fits, and when you don't need us

HumAI is a Meta Tech Provider. We move your number or set up a new one, submit business verification with its official documents, and prepare the display name and templates. Before the move, we explain how it works and what changes for your team. We also confirm during the assessment whether Meta's keep-the-app option fits your number, and we don't promise it before then.

After the move, we can run AI Customer Operations for you. An AI assistant answers from information you approve, your staff work from one Team Inbox, and you see everything in a Dashboard. Your systems connect after assessment and testing, and your staff confirm bookings and prices. If you run opt-in campaigns with us, you approve each one.

You may not need us at all if you have developers: Meta's Cloud API guides are enough for them to register the number. If the free app still covers you, stay on it and move later.