The WhatsApp Business App is a free mobile app for very small businesses — one user, limited automation. The WhatsApp Business API is for contact centres: it allows multiple agents, bot flows, CRM integration and high-volume messaging. It requires a Business Solution Provider (BSP) to set up and carries per-message costs for business-initiated conversations.

Yes — on a properly blended omnichannel platform, agents can handle concurrent interactions across channels from one screen. Most platforms let supervisors set concurrency limits per agent, so a voice-heavy agent might handle one call at a time while a chat agent handles three simultaneous WhatsApp threads.

You can register your existing mobile or landline number for the WhatsApp Business API, but the number cannot simultaneously be on the WhatsApp Business App — it must be migrated. Most businesses use a dedicated number for the API so their consumer WhatsApp is unaffected.

WhatsApp Business API onboarding (Meta verification) typically takes 2–5 business days. Voice routing can be live within 24 hours on cloud platforms. A fully integrated, blended omnichannel setup with CRM connectors and IVR configuration typically goes live within one to two weeks.

Most omnichannel platforms start from as few as 3–5 seats. The WhatsApp API itself has no minimum seat requirement. Pricing is per seat per month, so smaller teams are fully viable — though unit cost tends to be lower for 25+ seat deployments.