Connecting your WhatsApp number: QR, linked devices and limits

The final step of setup is connecting the WhatsApp number your assistant will speak from. Scanning the QR itself takes half a minute; the point of this page is not that half minute but what the connection actually means and what to watch for.

Which number should you connect?

The business number your office gives to buyers. The assistant answers messages arriving at this number, so it should be the one on your listings and your signage. It is already filled in on the setup page — it is the number you gave on the request form.

Every office runs on its own number. Two offices or two teams sharing one number does not work: the incoming message is matched to a portfolio via the number, so a shared line mixes conversations together. The ad agent follows the same rule and needs a separate number; a line dedicated to a single listing cannot also be the office's general number.

Don't connect a personal number. Nothing technically prevents it, but the assistant will begin answering business messages on that line — which means personal and company conversations end up on the same number.

What “linked device” means exactly

We use WhatsApp's own Linked Devices feature — the same session type you create when you open WhatsApp Web on a computer. Scanning the QR adds a new device to your number.

That has three practical consequences:

• Your phone stays yours. You are not handing over the number; you keep using WhatsApp on your phone exactly as before.
• You can end it whenever you want. Remove the session from WhatsApp → Settings → Linked Devices. From that moment the assistant can neither receive nor send on that number.
• It can also drop on its own. WhatsApp sessions expire after long inactivity or when removed from the device list. The channel then shows as disconnected in the panel and you re-scan the QR.

The limit you should know about

Regardless of how your number is connected, there is one thing you should know: your number can be restricted by WhatsApp. We would rather state that plainly than bury it.

The connection is currently established through WhatsApp's linked device feature — not through the official business API. The restriction risk, however, is not specific to that method: the official API also assigns your number a quality rating and messaging limit, and applies restrictions when the rules are broken.

Restrictions are not random; they are almost always the result of unsolicited messaging behaviour. The main things that create risk are:

• Sending bulk messages to people who never wrote to you.
• Blasting campaigns to purchased or scraped contact lists.
• Using a brand-new number to message many people first in a short window.

Realtiq does none of these: the assistant only replies to someone who wrote to you and never initiates a conversation on its own. The risk comes from also using the number for bulk outbound marketing. That is why our Terms of Use prohibit unsolicited and bulk messaging, and why we may suspend a channel on breach or when WhatsApp imposes a restriction.

What happens if the connection drops?

While a channel is disconnected, incoming messages don't reach the assistant — the buyer's message still arrives with you, but no automatic reply goes out. Channel status is visible live in the panel, so a silent outage doesn't run for days unnoticed. Reconnecting is the same QR step; your portfolio, leads and past conversations all stay in place.

After setup

The moment the session is established the assistant starts working: it greets whoever writes to your number, clarifies what they need, and matches them against the listings in your portfolio sheet. Why this flow runs on WhatsApp at all is covered in why buyers message first.

The data processed during connection is described in our Privacy Policy and KVKK notice.

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