WhatsApp

The WhatsApp integration connects your gym’s own WhatsApp Business number to 1Club. Once connected, members can message you on WhatsApp and staff reply from the inbox, booking notifications go out over WhatsApp automatically, and automations can reach members on the channel they check most. You connect it through Meta’s embedded signup - a guided Facebook popup where you pick or create a number and authorize 1Club - so there are no tokens or API keys to copy by hand.

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Why connect WhatsApp

Members read WhatsApp far more reliably than email, so booking confirmations, reminders, changes, and cancellations land in the app members already have open, with no extra setup per message. 1Club handles the parts WhatsApp is strict about: it creates the message templates Meta requires in your WhatsApp Business account when you connect, tracks opt-in, honors STOP automatically, and only sends business-initiated messages to members who have agreed. That protects your number’s quality rating with Meta. The connection is stored securely, and 1Club never shows the access token back to you. Typical uses:

• Answering trial enquiries - prospects message your number about a beginner class, the front desk replies from the inbox inside the 24-hour window and books them in, and because they are now an opted-in contact, their booking confirmation goes out over WhatsApp too.
• Telling members about a schedule change - when a class moves rooms and more than 24 hours have passed since most members last messaged, 1Club sends the approved booking-change template to affected members automatically, and staff handle the replies.
• One number for the whole front desk - every conversation lands in the shared inbox, where any staff member can reply, rather than on one person’s phone.

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Before you start

• WhatsApp is a paid-plan feature. On the Free plan and during the trial, its Activate and Configure buttons stay greyed out until you upgrade.
• Connecting and managing templates requires the settings.manage.organization permission. Viewing the status requires settings.read.organization.
• You need a Facebook Business account and a phone number you can verify for WhatsApp. You can create a new number during the embedded signup.

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Connect WhatsApp

1. Go to Settings > Integrations and click Activate on the WhatsApp card, under Tools. The WhatsApp page opens.
2. Under Connect WhatsApp, click Connect with WhatsApp.
3. A Facebook popup opens. Sign in to your Facebook Business account and follow Meta’s steps to select or create a WhatsApp Business account and phone number, then authorize 1Club.
4. When you finish the popup, 1Club completes the connection: it subscribes to your WhatsApp Business account so inbound messages reach your inbox, registers the phone number if it isn’t registered yet, and creates the standard message templates in your account.
5. A WhatsApp connected message appears, the status chip changes to Active, and the Message templates card appears below.

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Connection status

The status chip on the Connect WhatsApp card shows one of:

• Not activated - no WhatsApp connection exists yet.
• Inactive - a connection exists but isn’t active. Use Connect with WhatsApp to authorize the number again.
• Active - your number is connected and can send and receive messages from the inbox.

Once connected, the button changes to Reconnect, which reruns the embedded signup so you can refresh the connection or switch to a different number. 1Club renews the connection’s access on its own, so you rarely need to reconnect unless you are changing numbers.

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Two-way messaging and the 24-hour window

• Members who message your WhatsApp Business number arrive in the inbox. If the sender isn’t already a contact, 1Club creates one from their WhatsApp profile name and number, so the conversation is attached to a contact record.
• WhatsApp allows free-form replies only within a 24-hour customer-service window that opens each time someone messages you. Inside that window, staff can reply with any text - no template needed.
• Outside the window, WhatsApp only allows approved templates. 1Club handles this for you: when you send from the inbox, through an automation, or with an AI-drafted reply outside the window, it sends the approved general-message template carrying your text.

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Automatic booking notifications

Once WhatsApp is connected, these member notifications are delivered over WhatsApp, using 1Club’s approved templates, to members who are reachable on WhatsApp and have opted in:

• Booking confirmation - sent when a booking is made.
• Booking reminder - sent ahead of the class or session.
• Booking change - sent when a booking’s details change, such as its time or place.
• Booking cancellation - sent when a booking is cancelled.

More templates (waitlist spot available, membership expiration reminder, review request, and a general message) are used by the waitlist, automations, and other flows. Members choose which notification channels they receive in their notification settings, and turning on the WhatsApp channel counts as opting in.

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Message templates

WhatsApp requires any message you start (rather than reply to within the 24-hour window) to use a template Meta has reviewed and approved. That covers booking notifications and automations. 1Club creates and manages this template set for you - you don’t write them, and you can’t edit them in 1Club. When you connect, 1Club creates its standard template set in your WhatsApp Business account: booking confirmation, cancellation, reminder, and change, waitlist spot available, membership expiration reminder, review request, and a general message. Each one is created in English, plus each language your gym uses. Meta then reviews each template and language separately, usually within a few hours. A notification uses a template only once Meta has approved it. The Message templates card is a read-only status view. It lists each template with its Notification, Template name, Language, and Status:

• Approved - ready to send.
• Pending Meta review - created, waiting for Meta’s approval.
• Rejected by Meta - Meta didn’t approve it, so it isn’t used.
• Not set up yet - the template doesn’t exist in your WhatsApp account. Use Re-provision to create it.
• Doesn’t match 1club’s template - a template with the same name exists in your WhatsApp account, but its content differs from the one 1Club manages, so 1Club won’t use it. Delete it in WhatsApp Manager, then click Re-provision to create 1Club’s version.

1Club refreshes these statuses from Meta once a day. Two buttons let you act straight away:

• Sync status - refreshes the approval statuses from Meta now. If Meta doesn’t return a template’s content, 1Club can’t check it and leaves it as it was, so try again shortly. If the refresh itself fails, the statuses shown may be out of date until you run Sync status again.
• Re-provision - creates every template from 1Club’s standard set that is missing from your WhatsApp account, then refreshes the statuses. Each new template goes to Meta for review before it can be used. Run it after you add a language to your gym, so the templates for that language are created. It is safe to run repeatedly, and it never changes a template that already exists under the same name.

Because Re-provision only creates missing templates, it doesn’t resubmit a template Meta rejected or replace one that doesn’t match. Delete that template in WhatsApp Manager first, then click Re-provision to create it again.

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Consent and opt-out

WhatsApp penalizes businesses that message people who didn’t agree to it, so 1Club gates every business-initiated send (notifications, automations, and messages sent outside the 24-hour window) on the member’s consent, and honors opt-out automatically. How a member opts in:

• They message your WhatsApp Business number. Any inbound message counts as an opt-in under WhatsApp’s rules.
• They send a re-subscribe keyword such as START.
• They turn on the WhatsApp channel in their notification settings.
• They agree to WhatsApp messages when they enter their own phone number while signing up.

How a member opts out:

• They send a standard opt-out keyword as their whole message - STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, and similar. 1Club records the opt-out and blocks all business-initiated sends to them, even inside the 24-hour window, until they opt back in with START. An ordinary message after an opt-out doesn’t opt them back in.

Replies inside the 24-hour window are never blocked by this gate. If a member messaged you, you can always reply.

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Who is reachable on WhatsApp

1Club learns which members are actually on WhatsApp from real signals: an inbound message from them, or a delivered or read outbound message. Contacts confirmed reachable show a small WhatsApp badge in the inbox and contact lists, so staff can see at a glance who can be reached on the channel. If Meta reports that a number isn’t on WhatsApp, 1Club clears the signal. Business-initiated notifications only go to members who are both reachable and opted in.

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Automations and AI replies

• Automations can send on WhatsApp as one of their message channels. Outside the 24-hour window they use the approved general-message template automatically.
• AI-drafted inbox replies (Generate with AI) work on WhatsApp threads like any other channel, and the same window and template rules apply.

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Deactivate

1. On the WhatsApp page, click Deactivate at the top of the page.
2. Confirm in the Deactivate WhatsApp? dialog. It warns that the integration stops working and its settings are deleted.

1Club removes the connection. New inbound messages no longer reach your inbox, and staff can’t send from your number until you connect again. The message templates stay in your WhatsApp Business account. You return to Settings > Integrations. If deactivation fails, the reason is shown inside the dialog.

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Worked examples

Martial-arts gym fielding trial enquiries. A muay thai gym connects its WhatsApp Business number and shares it on its social profiles. Prospects message asking about the beginner class. Because that message opens the 24-hour window, the front desk replies from the inbox and books them in. The prospect is now an opted-in contact, so their booking confirmation goes out over WhatsApp too. Yoga studio confirming a schedule change. A studio’s morning reformer class moves rooms. More than 24 hours have passed since most members last messaged, so 1Club sends the approved booking-change template to affected members automatically, and staff handle the replies as they come in. Padel gym running one number across the team. A padel gym connects a single WhatsApp Business number, so several front-desk staff pick up member conversations from the shared inbox rather than messages landing on one person’s phone.

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Tips and best practices

• Reply inside the 24-hour window whenever you can. Free-form replies feel more personal and don’t depend on template approval.
• Share the same WhatsApp Business number on your website and social profiles, so messages land in the inbox and members opt in naturally.
• After connecting, give Meta time to approve the templates (usually a few hours). Use Sync status to check. Business-initiated sends only work once the relevant template is Approved.
• Use Reconnect rather than deactivating and connecting again when you switch numbers or refresh access.
• After you add a language to your gym, click Re-provision so members who use it get templates in their language.

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Troubleshooting

• “WhatsApp isn’t available on this server yet.” - embedded signup isn’t enabled for your deployment. Contact 1Club support.
• The Activate button is greyed out - WhatsApp is a paid-plan feature. Upgrade from the Free plan or the trial.
• “WhatsApp connect isn’t ready yet” - the Facebook popup hasn’t finished loading. Wait a moment and click Connect with WhatsApp again.
• “Authorized, but the popup didn’t return your WhatsApp account details” - the Facebook popup finished without sending back the account information. Click Connect with WhatsApp and complete the flow again.
• Connection cancelled - you closed or denied the popup. Click Connect with WhatsApp to retry.
• Members message but nothing reaches the inbox - check that the status is Active. If it shows Inactive, click Connect with WhatsApp to authorize the number again.
• Notifications aren’t going out over WhatsApp - check that the relevant template shows Approved (click Sync status), that the member is reachable (WhatsApp badge) and opted in, and that they haven’t sent STOP.
• A template shows Rejected by Meta - Re-provision doesn’t resubmit it. Delete it in WhatsApp Manager, then click Re-provision to create it again.
• A template shows Doesn’t match 1club’s template - the template in your WhatsApp account isn’t the one 1Club manages, so it won’t be used. Delete it in WhatsApp Manager, then click Re-provision.
• “Setup isn’t finished, so templates can’t be managed. Reconnect WhatsApp.” - the connection is missing its WhatsApp Business account details. Click Reconnect to finish setting it up.

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Related

• Integrations - the full integration catalog and how activation works.
• Inbox - where inbound WhatsApp messages arrive and staff reply.
• Compose - sending messages, including on the WhatsApp channel.
• Automations - reaching members on WhatsApp from automations.
• Templates - custom and system message content (separate from the WhatsApp templates above).