WhatsApp Settings
Connect your clinic's own WhatsApp number (or one per branch), and manage templates, usage, booking style and imported chats
Go to Settings → WhatsApp. Owners and admins can change it; other team members can only view it.
Your clinic talks to patients on its own WhatsApp number. The assistant answers and books on it in your clinic's name, and Meta bills message fees to your own Meta account. Until a number is connected, your clinic has no WhatsApp: the assistant doesn't answer there, and nothing is sent to patients on WhatsApp.
A number connected to the WhatsApp Business API stops working in the WhatsApp Business app on the phone, and its chats leave the app with it. Import your old chats first, or use a new number.
Your clinic's WhatsApp number
The first card shows the number that is open and its status:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Connected | The number is live. Patients reach your assistant on it. |
| Not connected | No details saved yet, or the number isn't working. If Meta reported an error, it's shown in red under the card. |
When connected, the card shows the phone number and its verified name. If the number was switched off while its details are still saved, owners and admins see Turn your number back on.
Connect your number yourself
You need an app on Meta for Developers with your WhatsApp number added to it. In the Your clinic's WhatsApp number card, expand Connect your number yourself (collapsed by default); its How to get these details list walks through it:
Create the Meta app
On developers.facebook.com, create a Business app, add the WhatsApp product and add your number.
Create a system user and token
In Business settings → Users → System users, add an Admin system user and give it your app and your WhatsApp account with full control. Generate a token for the app with expiry Never and the permissions whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management.
Copy the details
From App settings → Basic, copy the App secret. From WhatsApp → API setup, copy the WhatsApp Business Account ID and the Phone number ID.
Connect
Paste the Access token, App secret, WhatsApp Business Account ID and Phone number ID, then click Connect number. Docistra checks the number with Meta and points its messages to your account. The token and secret are stored encrypted and never shown again.
Set the webhook in your app
The card shows Webhook details for your app: a Callback URL and a Verify token, each with a copy button. In your Meta app, open WhatsApp → Configuration, paste both, click Verify and save, and subscribe to messages and message_template_status_update. While Docistra waits it shows Waiting for Meta to verify the webhook...; as soon as Meta verifies it, you see a green Success with the time and the Last event. You can do this step before or after connecting.
Go live
Switch your Meta app to Live. Meta doesn't deliver every message while the app is in Development.
Once a number is connected, this card is called Your number's connection and stays folded until you open it. To change the details, enter the new values and click Save and test. Leave the token or secret empty to keep the saved one.
Remove credentials deletes the saved token and secret. The assistant stops answering on WhatsApp until you connect the number again. Past conversations stay.
If connecting fails, the card tells you why, for example This number is connected to another Docistra account. or This Phone number ID doesn't belong to that WABA ID.
Let us connect it for you
If you'd rather not set up the Meta app, Docistra does it for 500 EGP, paid offline. The Let us connect it for you (500 EGP) card is shown while the number isn't connected:
- Open business.facebook.com → Settings → Users → People → Add.
- Add
integrations@docistra.comwith Full control (Admin). - Fill in Phone to reach you (and Notes (optional)) and click Send request.
The card then shows the request status. We call you to confirm payment, connect the number, and let you know when it's done. You can Cancel request until it's paid.
Several numbers: main and per branch
A clinic with more than one branch can have:
- A main number that serves every branch, and/or
- One number per branch.
When your clinic has more than one branch (or more than one number), the page starts with a Your numbers bar. Each chip shows the branch name (or Main number), the phone number, and a status dot: green for live, amber for waiting to be connected, red for an error, grey for switched off. Click a chip to open that number; everything below it (connection, webhook details, templates, usage, Flows and chat import) belongs to the number that is open.
Add a number
Click Add a number and choose who it is for under This number is for: All branches (main number), or one of your branches. Each branch can have one number, and there is one main number.
Connect it
The new number gets its own Callback URL and Verify token. Connect it exactly like the first one, with its own Meta details.
Change what it serves
Under the bar, This number serves lets you move the open number to another branch or make it the main number.
Remove number removes the open number from Docistra (only when you have more than one). The assistant stops answering on it, and its templates and Flows are removed from Docistra.
How messages are routed
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| A patient writes to a branch's number | The assistant treats that branch as theirs: it offers that branch's doctors, days and address first, and books there by default. If the patient asks for another branch, it books that branch instead, in the same chat. |
| A patient writes to the main number | The assistant works with all your branches. |
| Reminders, review requests and prescriptions for an appointment | Sent from the number of the appointment's branch. If that branch has no number, from the main number. |
| Your team replies from Conversations | Sent from the number the patient last wrote to. |
WhatsApp's 24-hour window is per number: a patient's message to one of your numbers doesn't open the window on another.
Message templates
Once the open number is connected, the Message templates card lists the Docistra templates on that number's WhatsApp account and their status: Approved, Pending review or Rejected. Other templates on your Meta account aren't listed, only counted ("not used by Docistra").
Reminders, results and review requests sent more than 24 hours after a patient's last message need an approved template on your account. Until Meta approves one, that message isn't sent. Click Refresh to update the statuses and to submit Docistra's templates to Meta for review.
WhatsApp messages this month
For a connected number, the WhatsApp messages in (month) card shows what Meta counts on that number:
- Free replies: Meta gives every number 1,000 free replies a month, then charges per reply. The bar turns amber near the limit and red when it's used up.
- Charged messages and cost (fold-out): the Charged messages by category (Replies beyond the free 1,000, Utility, Marketing, Authentication) and the Estimated cost in USD, with an EGP estimate at Meta's Egypt rates.
Utility and marketing templates are charged from the first one.
Once the free replies are used, make sure a payment method is set in Meta Billing Hub, or Meta stops delivering replies.
How patients book
The How do patients book? card (clinics only) chooses how the assistant books patients on WhatsApp. You can change it any time; it applies to all your numbers.
| Option | How it works |
|---|---|
| In-chat booking page (Default) | The assistant sends a button that opens the booking page, and the patient picks the doctor and time themselves. About 2 messages per booking. |
| In-chat messages | The assistant talks the patient through it with regular messages until the visit is booked. The patient never leaves the chat, but it takes more messages (can reach 10). |
WhatsApp Flows
Under the options, the WhatsApp Flows box shows whether the open number can show the booking form inside WhatsApp:
- Eligible: The booking form opens inside WhatsApp (WhatsApp Flow). Patients book, change appointments and rate visits without leaving WhatsApp.
- Not eligible or Not checked: The booking form opens as a Docistra page in the browser. The box says why (for example your Meta Business account isn't verified yet, or your number's display name isn't approved) and lists Meta's checks: Business verification, Account review, Display name, Number quality and Number status.
Docistra checks right after you connect a number and switches to WhatsApp automatically once it is eligible. Click Check WhatsApp Flows eligibility to check again.
Import your old WhatsApp chats
Connecting a number to Docistra removes it from the WhatsApp Business app, chats included. Use the Import your old WhatsApp chats card (owners and admins) to move them first. Imported chats show on the Conversations page tagged Imported, and new messages from the same patient continue below them.
The chats are imported into the number that is open. With several numbers, the card shows Importing into: and the number's name, so open the right number in the Your numbers bar first.
Pick Android or iPhone and open Steps:
- In WhatsApp Business: Settings > Chats > Chat backup > End-to-end encrypted backup > Turn on. When it asks for a password, choose Use 64-digit encryption key instead, then copy the key and keep it.
- Tap Back up and wait for it to finish.
- Open this page in Chrome on the same phone, tap Choose backup file, and pick
Android › media › com.whatsapp.w4b › WhatsApp Business › Databases › msgstore.db.crypt15. - Paste the key and tap Read backup.
No computer, or just a few chats? Click No computer, or just a few chats? Export them one by one, use WhatsApp's Export chat > Without media for each chat, then Choose files.
Docistra lists the chats it found. Untick any you don't want (personal chats, for example), fill in Patient's number or Who is the patient? where asked, and click Import. Keep the page open until it finishes.
The backup and key never leave your device: they're read in the browser, and only the chats you pick are sent. Photos and files aren't moved; the chat shows where one was sent. Uploading the same file again never adds a chat twice.
Don't delete the WhatsApp account or connect the number until the import is done.
Where other WhatsApp settings live
| What you want to do | Where |
|---|---|
| Get your clinic link and printable QR | Settings → Clinic → Codes & QR. See Codes & QR. |
| Connect a Telegram bot as well | Settings → Telegram. See Telegram Settings. |
| Turn appointment reminders on or off | Settings → Clinic → Patient Reminders. See Reminders. |
| Pause the AI for one patient and reply yourself | Conversations. See Conversations. |
| Change how the AI talks to patients | Clinic Agent. See Agent Settings. |
| Send marketing messages to opted-in patients | WhatsApp Ads. See WhatsApp Ads. |
The clinic phone number
The phone number in Settings → Clinic → Contact is your clinic's contact number. The AI shares it when patients ask for a phone number, and it appears in the short "assistant isn't available" message. It isn't used to connect WhatsApp.