A useful place to start.

Four tools, one simple idea: make conversations easier to begin and easier to manage.

Put a pre-chat form on your website

1. Open the form builder, enter your business number with its country code, and add your name and welcome message.
2. Use 1–6 short questions. Ask only what helps with this conversation. Skip sensitive information.
3. Try the interactive preview. In Publish, generate the form link and embed code.
4. Paste the script into your website’s HTML before the closing body tag, or share the standalone link. Your site must allow this origin in its script and frame policy.
5. Try the live form on a phone. Visitors review the summary and choose whether to send it in WhatsApp.

The configuration is encoded in the form link, including the business number. It is public, editable by anyone holding the link, and is not an authenticated business identity. Share links only from a website you control. Visitor answers stay in the browser until handed to WhatsApp.

Make a cost estimate you can explain

The cost planner compares service replies for one phone number. It uses whole delivered-message counts and amounts stored in ten-thousandths of a currency unit. The starting rates and provider fee are examples, not a live rate feed.

Meta’s documentation reviewed on 21 October 2026 describes 1,000 free service messages per business phone number each month and conditional free-entry-point treatment. It describes eligible free-entry-point windows as potentially lasting up to seven days. The exact conditions matter: an ordinary website click does not establish a free-entry-point window.

Use current account rates and confirmed exemptions. AI providers, eligible governments and nonprofits, Meta Business Agent usage, templates, and volume tiers can have different treatment. This planner does not model those cases. It is not a bill or a savings guarantee.

Respect the customer service window

Non-template Cloud API replies require an open 24-hour customer service window, opened or reset by a customer message. The composer checks the timestamp you supply before exporting a text payload. It cannot verify that timestamp with Meta. Recheck it in your integration at send time and use an approved template outside the window.

Payment exemptions and permission to send a message are different checks. The composer does not convert arbitrary text into an approved template or send messages.

Connect the webhook shield

The connector page includes a local signature lab and downloadable source. Each deployment supports one operator. For a private instance, deploy the source with cf, apply its D1 migration, set its six server secrets, and enable the connector as described in the included operations guide.

Use https://your-instance/api/webhook as the Meta callback. The GET verification request checks the verification token and returns the challenge. POST requests require an HMAC-SHA256 signature over the original body and a supported WhatsApp envelope. Configure your Meta app and WhatsApp Business Account subscription separately.

Accepted bodies are encrypted before storage. A receipt is acknowledged only after the database insert succeeds. Identical body bytes deduplicate for the retention period. Different batches may include the same underlying event, so the destination must also deduplicate Meta message and status identifiers.

Delivery uses a fixed HTTPS destination with no redirect following. The headers include X-Replylane-Id, X-Replylane-Timestamp, and X-Replylane-Signature. Verify the HMAC of timestamp + "." + id + "." + rawBody with the destination signing secret, reject stale timestamps, and record the receipt ID before applying effects.

Retries use a database lease, up to five attempts, and increasing delays. Lost acknowledgements can cause duplicate deliveries. Retained failed events can be replayed from the operator console. Payloads are removed on success; failed and pending payloads expire after 48 hours and are removed in scheduled cleanup batches.

What this release covers

Replylane provides browser tools and an optional incoming-webhook relay. It does not provide a shared team inbox, automatic outgoing messaging, live spend reconciliation, an authenticated multitenant account system, or an official Meta partnership.