WhatsApp Groups

Overview

WhatsApp Groups in CommBox enable businesses to manage multi-participant conversations directly on the platform, bringing together customers, agents, and internal stakeholders into a single shared thread.

This capability extends beyond traditional 1:1 messaging by supporting collaborative communication scenarios such as consultations, support cases, and group coordination. As a result, businesses can manage structured, multi-user conversations on WhatsApp, fully documented, controlled, and integrated within CommBox.

This guide outlines the invitation process and best practices for maximizing this feature.

Prerequisites

To use WhatsApp Groups, ensure the following requirements are met:

• Official Business Account (OBA) approved for group usage
• A properly configured Groups channel in CommBox
• Appropriate agent permissions
• Note that WhatsApp Coexistence does not work with Groups.

For more information, refer to:
https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/groups

Key Considerations

A. Unified Conversation Thread

All group interactions are centralized within a single conversation thread:

• All participant messages appear in real time in CommBox
• Agents can respond directly from the platform with full visibility of all interactions between participants
• Maintains structured communication without fragmentation
• Split Conversation must be enabled for participating agents to be automatically carried over when a new WhatsApp Group conversation is created.

B. Group Creation & Management

CommBox allows agents to initiate and manage WhatsApp Groups directly from the platform:

• Create new WhatsApp Groups from within CommBox

• The creating agent is automatically assigned as the group admin

• Groups are limited to up to 8 participants (not including the agent)

• Internal participants, such as associated agents or admins, can be added to the conversation
  

• Admins can set all participating agents as group admins - see General settings.
  
  

C. Permissions and Security

• Agents can generate a new invite link at any time by clicking Get New Invite Link from the 3-dot menu at the top.
  

  • Generating a new link automatically invalidates the previous one
  • Pending invitations sent via the old link will no longer be valid

• Group Admins, upon Group Creation, can enable Auto-Approve, allowing invited participants to join without manual approval

• Non-admin agents need the appropriate permissions enabled under the General settings section to work with groups
  

D. AI in WhatsApp Groups

• Autonomous AI Agents and AI Chatbot that automatically reply to customers are currently not supported in WhatsApp Group conversations.
• Human agents can still use AI Assist features such as Ask AI, AI conversation summary, and Reply from knowledge base.
• Platform AI features such as CommSite, and Era Insights, incorporate WhatsApp Groups data.

E. Groups Module

• The WhatsApp Groups module is automatically created from the existing WhatsApp Channels once Meta approves the associated WABA for group usage and a new group is created.
• The channel name keeps the original WhatsApp channel name with a “Groups” suffix added.
• A unique set of channel settings could be set for each WABA account.
• Up to 10,000 groups in any approved channel.
  

Key Organizational Benefits

Invitation Process

1. Select the group from the conversations listing. In the Groups pane, click Invite.
   

2. In the dialog box:

   • Enter the participant’s phone number
   • Select from existing customers if recognized
   • If not recognized, choose Add [phone number] as a new participant
   • Click Next
     

3. Select an invite template

   • Templates cannot be edited
   • Ensure templates include input fields if customization is required
     

4. To retrieve the invite link:

   • Click the three-dot menu at the top
   • Select Copy Invite Link
     

5. Paste the link into the template (if not already included), then click Invite Participants.
   

6. Once participants respond, the Group Admin can approve or reject each request.
   

Creating A Group

The agent who creates a group is automatically assigned as the Group Admin. This role may require additional permissions.

1. Navigate to Compose > WhatsApp and select Groups

   • Select a WhatsApp Channel
   • Enter a unique Group name
   • Enter a description about the group (optional)
   • Upload the group’s logo (optional)
   • Enable Auto-approve join requests (optional, disabled by default)
     Note: This setting automatically accepts new members and is permanent once saved.
     

2. Click Create group.

Group Management

A. Managing Join Requests

After being invited, participants must send a request to join the group.
The Group Admin can approve or reject each request unless auto-approval is enabled.
Admins can set all participating agents as group admins - see the channel's General settings.

B. Removing Group Participants

There are two ways to remove participants from WhatsApp Groups:

From the Group Conversation

Group Admins can remove participants directly from the group conversation.

1. Hover over the participant's name and phone number.
2. Click the X icon.
   
3. Confirm the removal in the dialog box.
   

From the Customers Module

Authorized agents can remove customers from individual WhatsApp Groups or from all groups they belong to.

1. Open the Customers module from the main sidebar menu.

2. Select the relevant customer.

3. Click the X next to a group to remove the customer from that group, or select Remove from all groups.
   

4. Confirm the removal.

Note:
a. For non-admin users, removing customers through the Customers module requires the General permissions: WhatsApp Groups > Remove Customers from WA Groups.
b. Removed participants cannot rejoin the group. This restriction is unique to business accounts.

C. Changing the Group Admin

When the agent managing the group needs to be changed, changing the assigned agent will automatically grant the new agent group admin status.

D. Managing Agent Participants

When a WhatsApp Group conversation is resolved and a new conversation is automatically created, participating agents are automatically carried over to the new conversation, provided they still have access to the channel.

If an administrator removes a channel from an agent's permission profile, the agent automatically loses access to the channel, is unassigned from its conversations, and is removed from their participant lists. This prevents unauthorized agents from being carried over to new group conversations.

Note: Automatic participant continuity requires Split Conversation to be enabled in the channel settings. When disabled, agents are not automatically carried over to new conversations and must be added again when needed.

Groups Module

The Groups module mirrors the behavior of the WhatsApp module. When a message is sent to a group, a corresponding channel is automatically created. The channel name is based on the WhatsApp channel name, with a “Groups” suffix added for identification.

Each channel is linked to a unique WhatsApp (WABA) phone number. To enable group messaging, the phone number must be approved for group usage. Without this approval, the channel will not function for groups.

Note: Each WhatsApp Business (WABA) phone number can be assigned to only one channel.

Unique Channel Settings

General

Select the channel’s language, and enable desired WhatsApp capabilities.

• Display the agent’s name on agent messages
• Enable WhatsApp read receipts
• Set all participating agents as group admins