By Yousef Shaiban · Last updated August 2026
WhatsApp gives you 24 hours. After that, the rules change.
Every business on the WhatsApp Business API lives inside a 24-hour session window: reply freely while it is open, send an approved template once it has closed. ChatSheba tracks the window per conversation and switches format on its own, so the rule stops being something your team has to remember.
Key takeaways
- ChatSheba connects through Meta's official WhatsApp Business API, not an unofficial workaround.
- It reads Arabic across every dialect, including sentences that mix in an English product name or an order number.
- The 24-hour window and template lifecycle are managed automatically for you.
- WhatsApp is one of four channels — all four feed one unified inbox.
- When a conversation needs a person, it escalates on the same thread with full history.
How does AI support actually run on WhatsApp?
It runs on the official WhatsApp Business API, which ChatSheba connects to as one of four channels — alongside Telegram, a web widget, and a custom-app SDK. A customer messages your WhatsApp number, the message lands in ChatSheba, and the AI reads the intent, pulls context from the CRM underneath, and replies in Arabic. There is no separate bot app for the customer to install — they use the WhatsApp they already have.
What is the 24-hour window, and do I have to manage it?
The window is WhatsApp's rule, not Sheba's: a business may reply freely for 24 hours after a customer's last message, and outside that window the first outbound message must use a pre-approved template. You do not have to manage it. ChatSheba tracks each conversation's window, sends free-form replies while it is open, and switches to an approved template once it has closed. The template lifecycle is handled too, from submission through approval state to selection at send time, so an agent is never blocked by a window they did not know had expired.
Does it understand Arabic the way customers actually write it?
Customers on WhatsApp rarely write formal Arabic; they write the way they speak. ChatSheba reads Arabic across every dialect and answers in clear Arabic, and its replies are authored natively rather than translated from English. It handles the code-switching that is normal in regional messaging too: a sentence mixing Arabic with an English product name or an order number stays understood rather than garbled.
Is WhatsApp the only channel, or can I run others too?
WhatsApp is one of four channels, not the whole product. ChatSheba supports exactly four: WhatsApp Business API, Telegram, a web widget, and a custom-app SDK. Every conversation from all four lands in one unified inbox, so a customer who starts on WhatsApp and follows up on the website is the same record to your team — one history, one CRM profile, no re-explaining.
What happens when the AI can't resolve something?
It escalates to a human on the same thread. When a conversation hits a limit, whether a refund decision, a sensitive complaint or anything outside the AI's scope, ChatSheba hands the conversation to an agent inside the unified inbox, with the full history attached. The customer stays in the same WhatsApp chat; nothing restarts. The agent can reply directly and hand back to the AI afterward.
Is customer data on WhatsApp handled responsibly?
ChatSheba is PDPL-aware and runs with per-deployment data boundaries, so each client's conversation data and CRM records stay within that deployment's defined scope. Combined with the official WhatsApp Business API rather than an unofficial workaround, this keeps the channel on a supported, accountable footing rather than a fragile gray-area integration.
Frequently asked questions
See Arabic WhatsApp support running on your number
We connect ChatSheba to the WhatsApp Business API and the other three channels, then tune it to how your customers actually write.
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