What is WhatsApp Business?

A business profile with name, category, hours, address and website. A product catalog with photo, price and description that customers browse without leaving the chat. Labels to organize conversations, for example to collect or new order. Quick replies for the texts you repeat, and automatic greeting and away messages.

The app also supports up to four linked devices on the same account, so your phone, the counter computer and a teammate's tablet can all see and answer the same chats. On top of the free tier there are optional paid features in the markets where Meta offers them: paid Business Broadcasts inside the app, and the Meta Verified subscription, which advertises up to ten devices and agents alongside the badge and support.

All of it runs on your phone with your usual number or a new one, and takes an afternoon to set up.

Personal WhatsApp is a person's identity; WhatsApp Business is a business identity. The customer sees your trade name, your hours and your catalog instead of an ordinary profile photo, and you get service tools the personal app does not carry.

You can have both on the same phone with different numbers. What you cannot do is use one number on both apps at once. When you move a number from WhatsApp to WhatsApp Business, Meta's procedure provides for keeping your chat history, but that depends on conditions: same number, same device or a restored backup, and following the official switch flow. Before moving anything, check WhatsApp's current migration instructions and take your backup.

It is not a question of how many people answer, since several already can from the linked devices. It runs out when what you need is workflow depth: routing conversations to an owner, knowing who handled what, per-user history and permissions, every order recorded in a system, or an AI agent that answers and executes. None of that lives in the app.

Our rule of thumb, not a Meta limit: while service is one or two people handling dozens of conversations a day, with no need to route or record them outside the phone, the free app is usually enough. The signal to move is concrete too: if messages pile up and you answer hours later, labels will not fix it. More hands will, or software answering for you on the WhatsApp Business Platform.