What WhatsApp imports do

When a client messages your WhatsApp Business number, LeadHive reads the conversation via the WhatsApp Business API and runs its NLP inference engine across the message history. This extracts structured data without you having to type anything.

The inference engine extracts:

• Property type preferences — house, apartment, townhouse, land, or commercial
• Budget range — price mentions are normalised into min/max purchase price or monthly rental
• Bedroom and bathroom requirements — e.g. "I need at least 3 bedrooms"
• Location interest — suburb names, city areas, and neighbourhoods mentioned in chat
• Contact type — buyer, seller, renter, or landlord — inferred from conversational intent
• Salary and job title — if shared during affordability discussions
• Desired features — garage, garden, pool, and other features mentioned

Auto-contact creation

When a message arrives from a phone number that doesn't match any existing contact, LeadHive automatically creates a new contact record:

• The contact is created with the phone number and any name that WhatsApp provides.
• Inference runs immediately and pre-fills as many fields as possible from the conversation.
• A WhatsApp badge is attached to the contact to indicate its origin.
• You can edit, merge, or enrich the contact record at any time from the Contacts tab.

Phone numbers are normalised (non-numeric characters stripped) before matching, so +27 82 123 4567 and 0821234567 are treated as the same contact.

Conversation view

Open the WhatsApp tab in LeadHive to see all your conversations. Each conversation card shows:

• Contact name and phone number
• AI-generated synopsis of what the client is looking for
• Last message timestamp
• Follow-up badge (if no activity in 3+ days)
• Lead indicator (if the linked contact is marked as a lead)

Adding notes

Open a conversation and use the notes field to add private notes that are stored alongside the chat. Notes are searchable from the global search bar and are visible to your partner if the contact is shared.

Archiving conversations

Archive inactive leads to keep your active conversation list focused on live enquiries. Archived conversations are not deleted — they remain accessible from the Archived filter tab and can be restored at any time.

Follow-up reminders

LeadHive monitors the last activity date on every conversation. If a conversation has had no new messages for 3 or more days, a follow-up badge appears on the conversation card in the WhatsApp tab and in your notifications feed.

• Dismiss a follow-up reminder with a single tap on the badge — this does not affect the conversation or contact.
• Dismissing resets the 3-day timer; a new reminder will appear if 3 more days pass without activity.

Mark as Lead from WhatsApp

You can toggle the Lead flag on a linked contact directly from the WhatsApp conversation card — no need to navigate to the Contacts tab. Tap the Lead toggle on the conversation card or from inside the conversation detail view. The change is reflected immediately across the Contacts and WhatsApp tabs.

Voice notes in conversations

Record a voice note directly inside a conversation view by tapping the microphone button in the conversation toolbar.

• The recording is sent to LeadHive's Whisper transcription engine.
• The transcribed text is added as a note on the conversation.
• Voice notes are a fast way to log call summaries or observations immediately after speaking with a client.

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Why connect the WhatsApp API?

Without an API connection, LeadHive cannot read, receive, or process your WhatsApp messages. The API connection is what enables the full suite of features: automatic contact creation, NLP inference, conversation view, follow-up reminders, and voice notes.

Once connected, LeadHive proxies all WhatsApp API calls through its backend — your browser never communicates directly with Meta's servers, and your access token is stored securely server-side.

Prerequisites

Before setting up the integration you will need:

• A Meta Business Account — free to create at business.facebook.com
• WhatsApp Business API access — apply through the Meta for Developers portal
• A phone number registered to WhatsApp Business — this cannot be a number already in use on a personal WhatsApp account
• A Permanent Access Token and your Phone Number ID — both available in the Meta Developer Console after your app is approved

Step-by-step setup

In the Meta Developer Console

1. Go to developers.facebook.com and log in with your Meta Business account.
2. Click My Apps → Create App. Select Business as the app type.
3. Give your app a name (e.g. "LeadHive Integration") and associate it with your Business Account.
4. In the app dashboard, add the WhatsApp product from the product list.
5. Under WhatsApp → API Setup, note your Phone Number ID.
6. Generate a Permanent Token: go to Business Settings → System Users → Add System User → assign your app with WhatsApp Business Account full control → Generate Token. Copy the token — it will only be shown once.

In LeadHive

1. Open the WhatsApp tab in the LeadHive sidebar.
2. Click Connect WhatsApp or go to Settings → WhatsApp.
3. Enter your Phone Number ID in the first field.
4. Enter your Access Token in the second field.
5. Click Connect. LeadHive will verify the credentials with Meta and confirm the connection.

Security

Your WhatsApp access token is handled with care:

• The token is stored server-side only in the LeadHive database, encrypted at rest.
• The LeadHive browser interface never receives or displays your token after the initial connection. There is no way to retrieve it via the UI — only replace or revoke it.
• All outbound WhatsApp API calls (message retrieval, sync) are made from the LeadHive backend, not from your browser. This prevents token exposure in browser network logs.
• To revoke access: go to Settings → WhatsApp → Disconnect. This deletes the stored token immediately. You will also want to revoke the token in the Meta Developer Console to fully invalidate it.