Guide · Getting started
Starting with ConvoTide on WhatsApp alone.
You do not need SMS to use ConvoTide. A WhatsApp-only business onboards with no SMS purchase, no wallet top-up and no DLT registration — those belong to the optional SMS product, not to WhatsApp. This guide walks the six real steps from “tell us your use case” to your first measured campaign, and says where the limits are.
Prerequisites
- A WhatsApp Business number you control. ConvoTide works against your own WhatsApp Business assets — your number stays yours, and Meta bills you directly for the messages you send. We never resell or mark up Meta charges.
- A business email for the account owner. Registration and recovery use it; support replies to it.
- A rough use case in one or two sentences. It shapes your pilot workspace — pipelines, templates and journeys get configured around the job you describe.
- That is the whole list. No DLT header or template registration is needed for WhatsApp-only traffic; DLT is an SMS-regime requirement, and SMS is optional.
The six steps
- Tell us your use case. Use the demo request form with your email and a short description of the job — order updates, lead follow-up, support. During the pilot the form is honest about what happens next: a person reads it and replies.
- Get your pilot workspace. You receive access to the common workspace with your business created and ConvoTide activated. One Capricorncorp account; if you already use sms-ocean, it is the same account and there is no second login.
- Connect your WhatsApp assets. Onboarding walks you through Meta’s Embedded Signup for your WhatsApp Business Account. The connection checklist shows live progress, and a failed step tells you what happened instead of pretending to succeed. Nothing sends live messages until this connection is verified for your business.
- Create and approve your first template. Business-initiated messages use pre-approved templates. Write one with named variables, submit it, and track it from draft to approved — the full loop is in the template approval guide.
- Send your first preflighted campaign. Pick an opted-in audience, an approved template, and a schedule; the preflight blocks anything ineligible before start. The preflight guide lists every check the platform runs.
- Measure the outcome. Delivery and reply activity arrive as signed webhook events and appear per message and per campaign. Start with the results guide before drawing conclusions from your first numbers.
Already an SMS-Ocean customer?
Sign in with your existing Capricorncorp account — no second registration, no new phone number. Activating ConvoTide is a product switch, not a migration: your SMS numbers, routes and billing stay untouched, and any cross-channel workflow (like linking a contact’s SMS and WhatsApp history) happens only with explicit permission. New here? Ignore all of that — WhatsApp-only onboarding never touches SMS settings.
Limits to know before you start
- Pilot access is limited to a first cohort while pricing is finalized — the pricing page states exactly what is and is not published yet.
- Template approval is Meta’s decision on Meta’s clock. We can prepare, track and recover from rejections, but no one can guarantee approval — anyone who does is selling you something else.
- Messaging goes live per business, after your Meta connection is verified. Until then you can build everything — templates, audiences, journeys — against sample data in the workspace preview.
Content reviewed October 2026 · owner: Zcode (implementation) · independent factual review: Codex QC, pending.