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Part 2: Testing Your Connection

Making Sure Everything Works​

Great work connecting your accounts! But before we celebrate, we need to test that messages can actually flow in both directions. Think of this like testing a new phone line—you want to make sure you can both call out and receive calls.

What to Expect: Your Conversation History​

First, let's check if your past conversations synced to Exabloom.

  1. In Exabloom, click on "Contacts" in the main navigation
  2. You should see a lot of new contacts appearing—these are from your WhatsApp Business conversations from the last 6 months
Why don't the contacts have names?

You might notice many contacts appear as just phone numbers without names. This is normal! WhatsApp's connection only shares phone numbers, not the contact names saved in your phone. You can manually update these names in Exabloom if you'd like, but for now, we're just focusing on making sure messages work.

Test 1: Can You Receive Incoming Messages?​

Let's verify that when someone sends a message to your WhatsApp Business number, it appears in Exabloom.

You'll need a second phone or a friend to help with this test:

  1. Using a different WhatsApp account (not your Business account—use a personal WhatsApp from another phone, or ask a colleague or friend to help), send a test message to your WhatsApp Business number
    • It can be a simple message like "Test message" or "Hello"
  2. On your computer, go to the "Inbox" section in Exabloom
  3. Within a few seconds, you should see a new message appear in your inbox
What you should see

The test message should appear with the sender's phone number (or contact name if you've already added them to Exabloom). You'll hear a notification sound and see a badge indicator if you have notifications enabled.

Did the message appear?

  • ✅ Yes, I see the new message → Perfect! Your incoming messages are working. Continue to Test 2.
  • ❌ No, I don't see any new message → This means there's a connection issue. Go back to Part 2 and carefully reconnect, paying special attention to Step 8 (the QR code scanning).

Test 2: Can You Send Messages?​

Now let's test sending messages from Exabloom back to that same contact.

  1. In Exabloom's Inbox, click on the conversation you just received (the test message)
  2. At the bottom of the conversation window, you'll see a text box where you can type a message
  3. Type a short reply like "Received, thank you!"
  4. Press Enter or click the Send button
What is a "free form message"?

A free form message means you can type anything you want—there are no restrictions on the content. However, you can only send free form messages within a 24-hour window after the customer last messaged you. This is a WhatsApp rule designed to prevent spam.

  1. On the other phone (the one that sent you the test message), check if your reply arrived

Did your message send successfully?

  • ✅ Yes, the other phone received my message → Excellent! Your two-way messaging is working. You've successfully connected WhatsApp to Exabloom!
  • ❌ No, the message didn't send, or I can't type in the text box → If the text box is grayed out or says something about the conversation being closed, this means the 24-hour messaging window has expired. Don't worry—this is expected if you're testing with an old conversation. We'll solve this in Part 4 by setting up template messages.

Connection Successful! But There's One More Thing...​

If you were able to both receive and send a message, your WhatsApp Business is now connected to Exabloom. That's a huge accomplishment!

However, there's an important limitation you need to know about:

The 24-Hour Rule

Right now, you can only send free form messages to contacts who have messaged you within the last 24 hours. After 24 hours, the "conversation window" closes, and you won't be able to start a new conversation by typing freely. This is a rule set by Meta (Facebook), not by Exabloom—it's designed to prevent businesses from spamming customers.

So what happens if you need to message a customer who hasn't written to you in over 24 hours?

The answer: You need to use WhatsApp Template Messages.

Template messages are pre-approved message formats that you can send to customers even after the 24-hour window closes. They're perfect for things like:

  • Appointment reminders
  • Order confirmations
  • Shipping updates
  • Service notifications

To use template messages, you need to:

  1. Add a payment method to your WhatsApp Business Account (this is a Meta requirement)
  2. Create or use approved message templates
  3. Send those templates through Exabloom

Let's set this up in Part 4 so you have full flexibility in how you communicate with customers.