Multi-account inbox
How to manage multiple WhatsApp numbers in one inbox
To manage several WhatsApp numbers in one inbox, connect each number once by scanning its QR code from a server-side console, then answer every conversation from that console instead of from the phones. The numbers stay exactly as they are — same number, same history, same contacts — and the phones are no longer needed to reply.
Why a second number breaks the usual setup
One WhatsApp number on one phone is a solved problem. The trouble starts at the second one, and it is not really about the app.
A number is bound to a device
WhatsApp links a number to a phone, and WhatsApp Web mirrors that phone. Two staff cannot work one number at once, so the handset becomes both the bottleneck and the thing that must never be lost.
Nobody can tell who replied
Every message on a shared phone is from “the company”. There is no way to see who answered a customer, how fast, or whether anyone did.
The data goes nowhere
Orders and payment confirmations arrive as chat messages. If nothing reads them programmatically, a person re-types them into another system, or the record simply does not exist.
What changes with a server-side inbox
| Approach | Who can answer | Where history lives | Reaches your systems |
|---|---|---|---|
| One phone per number | One person at a time | Lives on the handset | Nothing reaches them |
| WhatsApp Web on a shared login | Mirrors a single device | Gone when the phone is replaced | Copy and paste |
| MultiChats | Whole team, per-agent access | Mirrored to your database | Webhook + REST API |
How many numbers can you actually run?
A straight answer, because the honest constraint is hardware, not a licence tier.
Each connected number runs its own browser session on a server, and an active session costs roughly 2 GB of memory. Numbers are leased across the servers in your deployment — one number is only ever driven by one server at a time — so adding capacity is adding a machine, and a server that dies has its numbers reclaimed by the others. There is no per-number licence in the software.