What’s New in IM: Shared Phone Number and 1,000 Templates

Instant Messaging continues to evolve in Zoho Desk, giving teams more flexibility in how they manage WhatsApp conversations and messaging workflows. Here are two capabilities worth exploring.

1. Manage WhatsApp conversations across Zoho services using one phone number

If your teams use different Zoho services for functions such as sales and support, you don't necessarily need separate WhatsApp numbers for each team. You can use one WhatsApp Business number across multiple Zoho services, allowing customers to continue using the same number while teams across services stay connected to the conversation.

When the number is shared, a single WhatsApp channel is created across the connected services. Incoming customer messages appear across these services, and teams can see the conversation timeline even when the conversation started in another service. This helps keep the customer interaction connected instead of splitting it across multiple numbers.

Info

The service where the WhatsApp number is first configured becomes the parent service. This service controls automation for the shared number, including chatbots, auto-replies, workflow-triggered messages, and outbound notifications. Other connected services can participate in the conversation but don't control these automations.

For example, a customer can start a conversation with your sales team and later need support. Both teams can remain connected to the same WhatsApp conversation while continuing to work from their respective Zoho services.

Note

If a service disconnects from the shared number, only that service is removed from the shared channel. Other connected services can continue receiving messages and handling conversations.

Read the community post: Manage WhatsApp conversations across Zoho services using one phone number ↗

Read the help article: Manage WhatsApp conversations using a shared phone number ↗

2. Manage up to 1,000 WhatsApp templates

You can now manage up to 1,000 WhatsApp message templates per account in Zoho Desk. The increased limit gives teams more room to maintain templates for different customer communication needs, languages, and workflows without reaching the previous account-level limit.

This can be particularly useful for organizations that use WhatsApp across multiple customer journeys and need a larger library of approved templates.

From connecting teams through a shared WhatsApp number to managing a larger library of message templates, these capabilities give businesses more flexibility as their WhatsApp operations grow. Explore the updates and see how they can fit into your customer communication workflows.

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Prabin | Zoho Desk