Display names on a WhatsApp business number
The display name is what customers see above a conversation with your number. Changing it requires Meta's approval, the decision arrives on the phone_number_name_update webhook, and rejections are usually about the name not matching the business.
- What customers actually see
- Changes require approval
- The decision arrives by webhook
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The webhook field carrying the approval decision.
The error a number returns when it has no approved display name.
Decision per submission: approved or rejected.
What does Meta check?
Principally that the name corresponds to the business the account is verified as.
A name that matches the legal entity, a registered trading name, or the brand a customer would recognise from the website tends to pass. A generic description, a name unconnected to the verified business, or something that reads as a keyword rather than a name tends not to.
A number without an approved display name is limited in what it can do, and returns a dedicated error on certain sends. This catches people who connected a number quickly during a trial and never completed the name, then wondered why one class of send fails while others work.
How does the decision arrive?
On the phone_number_name_update webhook, carrying a decision field.
This is one of the six operational fields a connection subscribes to, and it is the only signal that a submitted name has been resolved. Nothing about it appears in the WhatsApp Business app, and a business that submitted a name change weeks ago has no way to know the outcome unless somebody is receiving that event.
Recording it on the connection timeline means the answer to did our name change go through is a date rather than a guess, which is the kind of question that otherwise turns into a support conversation.
Common mistakes
- Submitting a keyword rather than a name. Meta checks it against the verified business, not against search volume.
- Assuming no news means approved. The decision arrives as a webhook and nowhere else.
- Skipping the display name during a trial, then hitting 131037 on a send that requires one.
EasyCoexistence subscribes to phone_number_name_update and records the decision on the connection timeline, so an approval or rejection is a dated event rather than something to chase.
Frequently asked questions
How long does approval take?
Meta does not publish a fixed period, and no provider can accelerate it.
Can I change it later?
Yes, and each change goes through review again.
What is error 131037?
The error returned when a number has no approved display name and attempts something that requires one.
Does the customer see my phone number too?
They see the display name once approved, which is the point of having one.
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