② While you connect

The window that opens is Meta's, not ours: it is WhatsApp's official signup, and that's where you grant WAIA Connect permission.

The signup offers two paths, with Coexistence already selected. One rule decides it: if your number is on a phone today, it's Coexistence. Meta's other path —Cloud API— turns the number into 100% API and it stops being usable from the phone app, and it only makes sense for a number that is not on any phone: a new line, a contact centre, a virtual number. Coexistence can't connect one of those because it needs a QR scanned from that number's app. If that's your case, pick Cloud API in the same signup selector, below Coexistence. Think first: picking it by mistake leaves the number unusable on the phone.

Wait for Meta's window to close on its own. This is where most of the attempts that never finish get stuck. If you close it early the permission never reaches us and the number is not connected: it isn't slow, it didn't happen.

It takes a few minutes, not thirty seconds. Don't close the tab and don't reload.

Your number keeps working on your phone (in Coexistence). People who don't know this fear losing their WhatsApp and cancel — you don't lose it: the number stays in the app and additionally starts working over the API.

If something goes wrong, the panel tells you WHAT happened, not a generic line: whether you closed the window, whether it timed out, whether it came back without the permission, or whether Meta rejected it. And if Meta had already granted the permission, we detect it on retry and adopt it — you don't need to disconnect anything.