Some customers would rather talk than type. When a question is complicated, when a payment went wrong or when someone simply wants to hear a person, a call settles in two minutes what a chat drags out over an afternoon. WhatsApp lets businesses receive those calls on the same number they already use for messages, and HellouOne puts them in the same inbox where your team chats.
This guide covers the setup side: where the settings live, what each option does, what you need before you start and who gets the ring when a customer calls. It follows the help center article Configurar las llamadas en tu bandeja. If you want to see how agents answer once calls are on, read WhatsApp calling from the browser.
Before you start: three requirements
WhatsApp calls are configured inbox by inbox, not for the whole account. That means each WhatsApp number can have its own choice, which is useful when one number is for sales and another only sends notifications. Before you open the settings, check three things:
A WhatsApp Cloud inbox connected through Meta. Calling is a feature of the WhatsApp Cloud API, so other kinds of inboxes do not show the section.
The calling feature active on your account. It is included from the Growth plan up; see HellouOne pricing for what each plan covers.
A messaging limit of at least 2,000 unique customers per day on that number. This is Meta's rule, not HellouOne's. If the number's limit is lower, Meta rejects the change when you try to enable calls.
Step by step: turning calls on
Go to Settings, Inboxes and open your WhatsApp inbox.
Open the Configuration tab and scroll to the WhatsApp Calls section. The options load directly from Meta, so they can take a few seconds to appear.
Tick Enable calls on this number so your customers can call you on WhatsApp.
Under Call icon, choose whether the call button shows in the customer's WhatsApp chat (Visible) or is hidden (Hidden everywhere).
If you want to return calls, tick Ask for callback permission. When a customer calls you, WhatsApp asks them to authorise calls from your number.
Click Save call settings.
That last step trips people up. The Save call settings button saves only this section. The Update button on the inbox settings tab does not touch it, so if you change the calling options and then click Update, your calling changes are not saved.
Visible or hidden: choosing the call icon
The call icon decides how easy you make it for customers to start a call. Visible puts the call button in the customer's chat with your business, which suits support lines and sales teams that want calls. Hidden everywhere keeps calls enabled on the number but removes the button, a reasonable choice while you are still deciding who will answer, or for a number whose team works mostly in writing.
Callback permission is the other half. Without it, calls only flow one way: the customer calls you. With it, a customer who calls once is asked to authorise calls from your number, so your team can call them back later, for example after checking an order or when a missed call needs a reply.
Who gets the ring when a customer calls
A call is only useful if someone picks it up. HellouOne decides who to ring in this order:
If the conversation already has an assigned agent, only that agent's phone rings, so the customer reaches the person who already knows the case.
If nobody is assigned, it rings the inbox collaborators who are online.
If none of them is online, it rings all the inbox collaborators and the account admins, so no call is lost in silence.
For this to work, the agents who take calls must be on the inbox's Collaborators tab and have their status set to online. If calls keep falling through to admins, it usually means agents are not listed as collaborators or have left their status on offline. If you organise people into groups, teams in HellouOne explains how assignment and membership fit together.
If you do not see the WhatsApp Calls section
Two causes explain almost every case: the calling feature is not enabled on your account (it is included from the Growth plan up), or the inbox is not a WhatsApp Cloud inbox. If neither applies, write to support@hellou.ai and the team will check it with you.
How this works with HellouOne
Calls arrive in the same HellouOne shared inbox as WhatsApp messages, inside the customer's conversation. An agent who picks up sees the chat history, labels and notes before saying hello, and the ring order follows the assignment your team already uses, so the person who owns the conversation also owns the call. Because the settings are per inbox, you can switch calls on for a support number first, watch how the team handles them, and extend it to sales later.
A practical rollout: confirm the messaging limit on the number, enable calls with the icon hidden, make sure your call takers are online collaborators, then switch the icon to visible once the team is ready. Learn more in the help center: Configurar las llamadas en tu bandeja.
