What Coexistence is for
Before Coexistence, a phone number could only be active on one WhatsApp surface at a time. If a small business started out using the WhatsApp Business App on a phone, moving to the Cloud API meant losing the ability to reply directly from the phone — and vice versa.
Coexistence removes the choice. The same number can stay on the Business App for quick, personal replies from a team member’s phone, while Octopods handles everything else through the Cloud API:
Automated and templated outbound messaging — broadcasts, proactive messages, and workflow-triggered notifications.
CRM-integrated messaging — conversations synced into Intercom or HubSpot so agents can respond from their customer platform.
Multi-user access — more than one agent handling inbound messages through the CRM, without needing the number loaded on their personal phone.
Who it helps
Coexistence is most useful when:
Your team already uses the WhatsApp Business App on a shared business phone, and you want to layer Octopods on top without disrupting the existing workflow.
Some messages should stay personal and on-phone (for example, an owner responding directly to VIP customers) while routine traffic flows through the CRM.
You want gradual migration from the Business App to the Cloud API without cutting over in one step.
How contact sync works
When a phone number with Coexistence enabled is connected to Octopods, the contacts already present in the WhatsApp Business App for that number can be synced into your connected customer platform (Intercom or HubSpot). Each synced contact:
Has its phone number normalized to the international format used by your CRM.
Is matched against existing records in your CRM. If the number already belongs to a contact, the record is reused; otherwise a new contact is created.
Keeps its WhatsApp display name from the Business App as the contact’s name in the CRM when one isn’t already set.
The sync is one-way: Business App contacts flow into the CRM, not the other way around.
Sync results
Octopods tracks the outcome for every contact in the sync batch and reports a summary:
Created — contacts that didn’t previously exist in your CRM and were added as new records.
Skipped — contacts that matched an existing CRM record, so no duplicate was created.
Failed — contacts that couldn’t be synced (for example, an invalid or unroutable phone number). The reason is surfaced so you can follow up.
You’ll see these numbers in the sync result summary after the contact sync runs.
What changes for your team
After Coexistence is active for a number, your team can:
Continue replying directly in the WhatsApp Business App for any conversation they want to handle on-phone.
Reply from Intercom or HubSpot for any conversation routed into the CRM by Octopods.
Send templates, broadcasts, and proactive messages through Octopods regardless of whether a conversation is being handled on-phone or in the CRM.
Because both surfaces share the same phone number, customers see a single business identity and conversation history — it doesn’t matter to them which tool the reply came from.
Things to keep in mind
Coexistence is a capability configured on the Meta side when the phone number is connected. Octopods works alongside it; nothing extra needs to be turned on inside Octopods to benefit.
The 24-hour conversation window still applies. Messages sent outside the window must use an approved template, whether you send from the Business App or through Octopods.
Message templates created in Octopods apply to outbound messages sent through the Cloud API. Messages sent from the Business App are free-form, on-phone messages and don’t require templates.
What’s next