WhatsApp Coexistence limitations: what to expect before you connect

The most common surprise is a small one. A team connects its number, everything works, and a week later someone asks where the supplier group chat went. It's still in the app. It just never appeared in the web inbox.

None of the WhatsApp Coexistence limitations below is a reason to walk away. Most small businesses will never touch them. But it's far better to read them before you connect than to find them mid-shift. Everything about WhatsApp's rules here comes from Meta's guide to onboarding WhatsApp Business app users, as of October 2026. Meta changes this page, so treat ours as a map and theirs as the territory.

If you're still deciding what Coexistence is, start with our plain-English explainer and come back.

WhatsApp Coexistence limitations: what Meta switches off

Once a number is shared between the app and the platform, a few things change. Meta's feature table says:

• Group chats. They keep working in the app, but they are not supported on the platform side and are not synced. A team inbox won't show them.
• Disappearing messages, view-once messages and live location. All three are turned off for one-to-one chats.
• Broadcast lists. You can't create new ones, and existing lists become read-only.
• Business tools and the app's messaging tools. Catalog, orders, status, greeting and away messages, quick replies, labels and your business profile are unchanged in the app. Meta marks them as not supported on the platform side.
• Voice and video calls, and Channels. Same pattern: unchanged in the app, not supported on the platform side.

One thing Meta's page does not explain: what happens when the app's own away message and an automatic reply from a connected tool are both switched on. Don't guess. If you use both, test with a message from a spare phone and look at what the customer receives.

What syncs, and where the edges are

Sync is the good news, with a few edges you should know about.

• Contacts sync, and later additions, edits and removals follow.
• History covers messages from the 180 days before you connected, about six months. Group chats are excluded.
• Media in that history is limited. Meta sends media references only for the 14 days before you connected, so older photos and files may not be available.
• One chance. The history sync and the contacts sync can each run only once. Repeating either means disconnecting and going through setup again. On your phone you choose whether to share history, and Avox's own docs say plainly that this choice can't be changed later.
• A deadline. Meta gives the platform 24 hours after you connect to request your contacts and history, or the number is offboarded and setup starts again. That's the platform's job, not yours, but keep the app open on the phone while it runs, because it can take several minutes.
• Edits and deletions. Meta supports edited messages (within 15 minutes of sending) and revoked messages (within two days), so what your team edits in the app can be reflected on the other side.

The app has to stay in use

This is the limit that catches people out most often.

Meta lists reasons a number gets disconnected from the platform. Two are about inactivity: the primary phone being inactive for approximately 14 days, and a linked device being inactive for approximately 30 days. Others include changing the phone number, re-registering the app, and downgrading the account.

So: keep the app signed in on a phone someone opens daily. A spare phone in a drawer is not a plan. If you want to disconnect on purpose, Meta says to do it in the app, under Settings, Account, Business Platform, Disconnect Account.

Linked devices

Up to four linked devices are allowed. Meta supports all companion apps except WhatsApp for Windows and WhatsApp for WearOS. Connecting unlinks every linked device, and your team can link the supported ones again afterwards. Messages from an unsupported companion can't be mirrored, and messages sent to one may show placeholder text.

Windows, speed and cost

Three rules that have nothing to do with how you feel about them:

• App replies don't open the window. Meta's 24-hour customer service window opens only when a customer messages the connected number. Messages your team sends from the app do not open, extend or change it.
• Speed. A number used with both the app and the platform has a fixed throughput of 20 messages per second. That's fine for a shop and relevant only for large campaigns.
• Cost. Messages sent from the app remain free. Messages sent through the platform follow Meta's platform pricing, which Meta publishes on its own pages.

Where you live

Coexistence was rolled out country by country. Meta's changelog shows additions over time, including India in May 2025 and, in October 2025, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, the European Economic Area, the EU and the UK. The onboarding page itself doesn't list countries, so we can't give you a final list. If your number's country matters, check that Meta's setup window shows your app profile, which is the sign you're on the Coexistence route.

Limits that belong to the inbox, not to Meta

Honesty cuts both ways, so here are a few that are about Avox rather than WhatsApp:

• Replies sent from the Avox inbox are plain text. Pictures, buttons, Flows and templates go out through automations or the API.
• Photos, voice notes and documents customers send show in the inbox as short labels such as [image], so you can tell something arrived, and you'd open the app on the phone to see it.
• Imported history never starts an automation, and a contact name changed in the app's list replaces a name you typed in Avox.
• Message forwarding to your own server covers new customer messages only. History and replies sent from the phone stay in Avox.

The full list of what moves between the app and Avox is on the Coexistence sync page of our docs.

Questions people ask

Can I use group chats with Coexistence?

Yes in the app, no in the web inbox. They keep working on the phone exactly as before, but they aren't synced to the platform.

What happens if nobody opens the app for two weeks?

Meta can disconnect the number from the platform, and your connected tools stop receiving messages until you reconnect. Open the app regularly and you won't meet this.

Can I change my mind about sharing history?

Not afterwards. The choice is made once, on your phone, during setup. To change it you'd disconnect and set up again.

Does Coexistence work in every country?

Not necessarily. Meta added countries in stages and doesn't list them all on one page. Check Meta's current documentation, then try the setup: the app profile on screen is your sign.

Ready to try it? Our connection walkthrough covers every screen, and the Coexistence product page shows how the pieces fit.