Run WhatsApp groups from Exoconnect

Create WhatsApp groups from your business number, share invite links, approve join requests, pin messages and manage members from Exoconnect.

Updated · 4 min read

WhatsApp groups let your business talk with a small circle of customers in one chat: a class, a club, a team of resellers, or your most loyal buyers. With Exoconnect, your business number creates and runs the group, and its messages arrive in the same Inbox as your other chats.

This guide shows how to create a group, invite people, let them in, and keep the group in order.

Before you start

  • Connect your WhatsApp number and register it. Read Set up WhatsApp Business in Exoconnect.
  • Your number needs an Official Business Account. That is a status Meta grants to some business numbers, shown as a badge on the profile. Meta allows groups only for these numbers. Without it, Meta refuses to create the group.
  • Groups are small. Meta currently allows up to 8 participants in a group created this way.
  • The right role. In a team, creating and changing groups needs a role that can manage connections. Without it, you can read a group but not change it.

Create a group

  1. Open Inbox.
  2. Choose the + button beside the filters (its label is New WhatsApp group).
  3. Give the group a Name, and a Description if you like.
  4. Choose whether to Approve who joins. When it’s on, people with the invite link ask first, and you let them in. When it’s off, anyone with the link joins.
  5. If you’ve connected more than one number, choose the Number that owns the group.
  6. Choose Create group.

WhatsApp sets the group up in the background, usually within seconds. Meanwhile it shows in your Inbox as Setting up on WhatsApp…. When it’s ready, it opens like any other conversation.

Open the group panel

Open the group in the Inbox and choose the Group button at the top, or press G on a keyboard. The panel shows:

  • The group’s picture, name and description. Select any of them to change it. A picture must be at least 192 pixels on each side; Exoconnect crops it to a square for you.
  • How many members it has, and whether you approve who joins.
  • People asking to join, the Invite link, the Members, and the group’s Activity.

Invite people

People join a WhatsApp group through its invite link. There are two ways to share it.

Share the link yourself. Under Invite link, copy the link and share it wherever your customers are: your Instagram bio, a post, a form, or a message.

Invite by message. Choose Invite by message, enter the person’s phone number with its country code, pick the message, and choose Send invite. WhatsApp adds the group’s invite link to the message.

WhatsApp only sends invites inside a message template it has approved. If you don’t have one yet, Exoconnect says Add a group invite template first: add one from WhatsApp’s ready-made templates in Templates, and it shows here once approved. Read WhatsApp templates and the 24-hour window, explained.

Only invite people who agreed to hear from you.

If a link has been shared too widely, choose Reset link. The old link stops working, and you get a new one to share.

Let people in

If you approve who joins, the Group button shows how many people are waiting. In the panel, under Asking to join:

  • Choose Let in or Decline for each person.
  • Or choose Let everyone in.

Exoconnect shows each person by the name they last used to message your number. Someone who never wrote to you shows without a name, because WhatsApp doesn’t share one.

Talk in the group

Group messages arrive in your Inbox next to your other chats. Each message shows who sent it. To see only groups, open Filters and choose Groups under Show.

You can send words, a photo, a video, audio or a document, or an approved template.

The 24-hour rule works per group: a message from any member opens 24 hours in which you can send anything to the whole group. After that, you can send an approved template. Your own messages don’t extend it.

Pin a message

Hover over a message (or focus it) and choose the pin button. Pin it for 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days, or choose Unpin. WhatsApp shows the pin to members. Exoconnect doesn’t keep its own list of pinned messages, so check WhatsApp to see what’s pinned now.

Keep the group in order

  • Remove a member. Under Members, choose Remove beside the person and confirm. Someone removed can’t rejoin through the invite link.
  • Follow what happened. Activity lists who joined, left, was removed or asked to join, and every change to the name, description or picture. It also shows when WhatsApp refused a change, or suspended the group.
  • Suspended groups. If WhatsApp suspends a group, the panel says so and the group can’t take messages until WhatsApp lifts the suspension.
  • Delete the group. At the bottom of the panel, choose Delete group and confirm. WhatsApp removes everyone and ends the group. This can’t be undone.

What groups don’t do

  • A group is a conversation, not a mailing list.
  • Exoconnect doesn’t reply in groups automatically.
  • Group messages don’t create contacts. A person becomes a contact when they message your number directly.
  • Reactions and @mentions inside groups, and making members admins, aren’t available.

What it costs

Exoconnect doesn’t charge per message. Meta charges businesses for some WhatsApp messages, including templates sent to a group, at its own rates. Those charges come from Meta, separate from your Exoconnect plan, and Exoconnect adds nothing on top. See Exoconnect’s plans.

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