Contacts

What it does

CRM → Contacts lists every WhatsApp phone number your business holds, and each contact's page shows that number's marketing consent, customer link, conversation and campaign history.

A contact is a phone number, not a business. One customer account can have several contacts, for example a manager and a buyer at the same shop.

Contacts are added when someone messages your WhatsApp number, when you invite them, and when you upload a contact file.

When to use it

Use it to:

• Check a number's most recent marketing consent before you include it in a campaign
• Link a number to a customer account, or correct the wrong link
• Confirm that a customer's number is authenticated so they receive automated order and invoice messages
• Find out why a particular contact did not receive a campaign
• See which contacts WhatsApp messages are no longer reaching, and why
• See how many contacts were added in a period, such as last month
• See which contacts are not linked to a customer yet
• Download your contact list for checking or editing

Steps

Find a contact

1. Open CRM → Contacts.
2. Type a phone number into Search by phone.... Searching sets every filter to all, so the contact is found whatever its consent, deliverability or customer link. Search matches the phone number only — names are not searched. All non-digit characters are ignored. It is a partial contains search, so part of the number is enough but typing mistakes are not corrected. UK numbers can be entered as 07700 900123, 7700900123, +447700900123 or 447700900123; the leading-zero form also checks the same digits without its leading 0. A search with no digits returns the whole list. Clear the search to return to the filters the list opens on.
3. The list opens on the contacts you can market to, the same contacts the dashboard's opted-in contacts card counts: Opted-in and Reachable, and also Linked to a customer when your WhatsApp channel requires every contact to be linked to a customer (see Channels).
4. To see other contacts, change the filters:
   • Consent: All marketing consent statuses, Opted-in, Opted-out or No marketing consent.
   • Deliverability: All deliverability statuses, Reachable or Unreachable. Combined with Opted-in, Unreachable shows the opted-in contacts your campaigns are currently skipping.
   • Customer: Linked and unlinked, Linked to a customer or Not linked to a customer. A contact whose customer has been deleted counts as not linked.
5. Optionally pick a date in Created from, Created to or both to see only the contacts added in that period. Both dates are included, and you can leave either one empty.
6. Select the phone number to open the contact.

Your filters are kept in the page address, so you can bookmark or share a filtered view.

Link a contact to a customer

1. Open the contact.
2. In Contact details, next to Customer, select Change.
3. Type a reference or name into Search customers and choose the customer you want.
4. Select Save.

To remove a link, select Change, choose Unlink customer, then Save.

Mark a contact as authenticated

1. Open the contact.
2. In Contact details, switch Authenticated on.

Authentication confirms that this phone number really belongs to the linked customer. An authenticated, opted-in contact receives the automated messages sent for that customer. See automated WhatsApp messaging.

The switch cannot be used until the contact has a customer. Until then it shows Link a customer before authenticating.

Import contacts

1. Open CRM → Contacts.
2. Select Import WhatsApp Contacts. This opens the upload dialog on WhatsApp → Imports.
3. Follow the contact import guide for the file layout and the opt-in rules.

Export contacts

1. Open CRM → Contacts.
2. Select Export, then Excel (.xlsx) or CSV (.csv).

The download contains the contacts the list is showing, with the same search and filters, so its row count matches the count above the table. To download every contact, set each filter to all first. Each row has the number in PHONE, the contact's name in NAME, their WhatsApp profile name in WHATSAPP_NAME, whether it is authenticated, its marketing consent, and the linked customer's CUSTOMER_REFERENCE, CUSTOMER_NAME and attributes.

Three columns describe deliverability: UNREACHABLE is yes or no, UNREACHABLE_SINCE is the date messages stopped arriving, and UNREACHABLE_REASON is whatsapp_rejected (Rejected by WhatsApp) or no_delivery (No deliveries). See Reachable and unreachable. UNREACHABLE_SINCE and UNREACHABLE_REASON are blank for reachable contacts.

What you'll see

The contact list

Newest contacts appear first. The count above the table names the filters you are on, so it reads Showing 1–50 of 240 reachable opted-in contacts when the list opens, Showing 1–50 of 220 reachable opted-in contacts linked to a customer when your channel requires customers, Showing 1–50 of 240 contacts matching “7700” when you have searched, Showing 1–50 of 312 unreachable opted-in contacts when you have chosen Unreachable, or Showing 1–50 of 81 reachable opted-in contacts in your date range when you have picked dates. An empty list shows No contacts yet., or No contacts match your filters. when a search or filter is applied.

The contact page

The heading shows the contact's name, or their number when no name is known, with the date they were created. A red Unreachable badge appears beside it when messages are not getting through.

Contact details shows:

• Name — the imported contact name, and WhatsApp name — the profile name they set in WhatsApp
• Phone — their WhatsApp number
• Latest marketing consent — Opted-in, Opted-out or None
• Deliverability — Reachable, or Unreachable since with the date messages stopped arriving and the reason beneath
• Authenticated — the switch, with the date and time authentication was recorded
• Customer — the linked account's name with its reference beneath, and Change to link a different customer

Marketing consent in the list and Latest marketing consent here are the contact's most recent consent answer across your WhatsApp channels. Consent is recorded per channel, so if your business uses more than one channel check the per-channel records in the consent log before assuming a contact will receive a campaign sent on a particular channel.

Below that:

• Last 10 consent log entries — the contact's most recent opt-ins and opt-outs by Date and Status. The full record is in WhatsApp → Consent Log. It shows No consent log entries. when the contact has never opted in or out.
• Last 10 campaign attempts — see the statuses below. It shows No campaign attempts. when the contact has never been included in a campaign.
• Conversation — the messages exchanged with this number during this week and last week in your company's timezone (weeks start on Sunday), newest at the bottom. Older messages are not shown. It shows No conversations when nothing has been sent or received in that window.

Campaign attempt statuses

Last 10 campaign attempts lists the campaign name (with a Reminder badge when the campaign was a reminder), when it was Attempted, and when it was Sent, Delivered and Read. Status stays blank when the message went out normally, and otherwise shows:

• Pending — still being sent. It adds (retrying) after a further attempt.
• Failed — WhatsApp rejected or could not deliver the message.
• Skipped — the contact was deliberately left out of the send.
• Unknown — the outcome could not be determined.

The reason appears under the badge:

Any other reason is shown in WhatsApp's own wording, with its reference number in brackets. Quote that number to your onboarding manager if the same failure keeps happening.

Reachable and unreachable

A contact is marked unreachable when messages to that number stop being delivered. Unreachable contacts are skipped by campaigns, which protects your sending quality. The reason is shown on the contact, in the hover text of every Unreachable badge, and in the export:

An unreachable contact keeps its marketing consent, but the list opens on Reachable, so it is hidden until you change the deliverability filter. Choose Unreachable in the deliverability list to see these contacts, and confirm or update their number with the customer.

The contact returns to Reachable on its own as soon as a message is delivered or read again, or the person replies. Nothing needs to be done in the admin panel.

If something goes wrong

• The switch under Authenticated will not move: the contact has no customer yet and shows Link a customer before authenticating. Link a customer first, then switch it on.

• The contact lost its authentication: changing or removing the customer link clears authentication by design. Switch Authenticated back on after correcting the link.

• "That customer could not be found. Try another reference.": the customer was removed or belongs to another company. Search again and pick a customer from the list rather than typing a reference from memory.

• "You are not allowed to update this contact.": your account does not have permission for this company. Ask an administrator to check your access in Admin → Team.

• "We couldn't update the customer link. Please try again." or "We couldn't update the authenticated status. Please try again.": reload the page and repeat the change. If it keeps failing, contact your onboarding manager.

• A contact shows no consent: they have never answered an invite or joined. Send an invite from WhatsApp → Invites, or collect consent first following the consent rules.

• A contact is missing after an upload: check the result of the upload in WhatsApp → Imports and the file layout in the contact import guide.

• The Customer column is empty: the number is not linked to a customer yet. Link it on the contact page, or include the customer reference in your next contact upload.

• You searched for a name and every contact is still listed: the search box only matches phone numbers. Clear it and search by number, or use the Marketing consent filter.

• An opted-in contact did not receive a campaign: check the Deliverability column. Unreachable contacts are skipped; hover the badge for the reason.

• A contact you expected is missing: search for its phone number, which looks through every contact. Otherwise, remember the list opens on reachable, opted-in contacts (linked to a customer when your channel requires it); set the consent, deliverability and customer filters to all to see everyone.

• The contacts list shows a different number from the dashboard: with the filters the list opens on, both count the same contacts. If you have changed a filter, searched or picked dates, the numbers will differ. The dashboard can also take up to half an hour to catch up with recent changes.

• Fewer contacts than you expected in a date range: Created from and Created to use the date each contact was added, and the other filters still apply, so the count shows only the contacts added in that period that also match the consent, deliverability and customer filters. To see who opted in or out during a period, filter the consent log by date instead.

• A campaign you sent is not listed for this contact: the contact was not in that campaign's audience. Contacts who were opted out, marked Unreachable, or outside the segment when the campaign was built are left out of the send and never appear in this list. Check Latest marketing consent and Deliverability above, and the segment used in WhatsApp → Segments.

• "We couldn't find this contact. Refresh the page and try again.": the contact was opened from a stale page. Reload the contact list and open it again.

• The customer picker shows "Unable to load customers." or "No customers found.": reload the page, then type more of the reference — only the first matches are listed. If the customer is genuinely missing, add it first (see customers).

• "We couldn't export. Please try again." or "Unable to export contacts": the download did not finish. Select Export again; while it runs the button reads Exporting.... If it keeps failing, contact your onboarding manager.

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