For years, the rule was simple: on the WhatsApp business platform you wrote, you didn't talk. The call button, for company numbers, simply didn't exist. Since July 2025 it does. WhatsApp Business Calling arrived with the general availability of the API, and with it something traditional phone lost long ago: the customer knowing who's calling before they pick up.
How it actually works
Inbound: your customer taps the call button in the conversation — or in an ad — and the call travels over data to your company. It's free for them, and they need no one's permission. If your contact center is well integrated, that call comes in like any other: queue, routing, supervisor watching.
Outbound: here Meta added a toll, and rightly so. The company requests a call permission inside an active conversation — at most one request every 24 hours, two per week — and can only dial with the customer's yes. The call shows the brand's verified name. Not an unknown mobile. Your name.
And the detail that changes everything operationally: messages and calls share the same thread. The agent picks up seeing the whole conversation. The customer doesn't repeat their case, because there's no need.
Why it matters right now
Because the classic phone is going through its identity crisis. Between spam filters, apps that label numbers and regulations like the 400 prefix in Spain, the anonymous call is dying. The verified call does exactly the opposite: it puts identity up front. Meta's first published data points that way — up to 4x more conversion on assisted sales when chat escalates to voice.
Technically, voice is integrated via SIP or WebRTC, so on a platform like Vocalcom it's routed, recorded and audited like the voice channel always was. It's available in most markets, Spain and Latin America included, with a few exceptions (the US and Canada among them).
Where is it delivering results first? Assisted sales, complex-case support and collections — that sector where the number-one problem boils down to one sentence: the debtor doesn't answer strangers.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost?
Receiving calls has no conversation cost for the company. Outbound calls the company initiates are billed per minute at Meta's rates.
Does my current number work?
Yes, if it's on the WhatsApp Business Platform. Dedicated new numbering can also be activated.
Can calls be recorded?
Yes, on the company's own infrastructure and with the same compliance standards as traditional voice.
See it working in your contact center.
Request a demo