Product catalogs on a Coexistence number

Does my WhatsApp Business app catalog survive Coexistence?

Yes, on the phone. Meta's Coexistence feature table lists business tools, naming catalog, orders and status as examples, with no change to how they work in the WhatsApp Business app after onboarding.

The same row marks them as not supported on Cloud API. That is the part to plan around: an integration should not expect to read, edit or mirror the app's catalog tool through the API.

So a shop that sells from its app catalog keeps doing exactly that after connecting. What changes is that it also gains the API, with its own way of sending products.

How does a product catalog work through Cloud API?

Through a catalog uploaded to Meta and connected to the WhatsApp Business Account. A catalog is a structured inventory of products or services, and each item carries details such as name, description, price, images and availability. Meta describes four stages.

• Inventory upload, through the Commerce API or Meta Commerce Manager.
• Commerce configuration per phone number: whether the cart is enabled and whether the catalog is visible.
• Product sharing with catalog, single-product, multi-product or carousel messages.
• Customer responses, which arrive as webhook notifications with order details and product questions.

What differs between product messages in the app and through the API?

Meta documents one visible difference: messages sent through Cloud API do not currently display a shopping cart icon in the chat thread header, unlike product messages sent from the WhatsApp Business app.

The API side also has settings the app does not expose in the same way. By default the shopping cart is enabled and the storefront icon is hidden for every business phone number on the account, and both can be switched per number with the commerce settings endpoint. Disabling the catalog makes wa.me catalog links and the View catalog button show an invalid catalog warning when tapped.

Outside the customer service window, products still go out inside an approved template, like any other business-initiated message.

Who reviews the products?

Meta, automatically. Items added to a catalog connected to a WhatsApp Business Account are reviewed, and a policy-violating item is flagged with the business directed to the WhatsApp Commerce Policies. Disapproved items can be appealed in Meta Commerce Manager.

Customers can also report a specific product they received in a message, which triggers its own review. Reports about the business itself are a separate matter: they are one of the signals Meta uses for a number's quality rating.

Businesses based in India have an additional obligation to comply with online selling laws, which Meta exposes through its Business Compliance API.

Common mistakes

• Expecting the app's catalog tool to be readable through the API. Meta lists it as not supported on Cloud API.
• Disabling the catalog on a number while wa.me catalog links are still in circulation. Those links then show an invalid catalog warning.
• Sending products outside the customer service window without a template. Business-initiated messages still need one.

Frequently asked questions

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