Official Business Account (OBA) or blue badge

When a business has Official Business Account (OBA), the conversations with users will show a blue badge/tick .

Types of accounts

A WhatsApp Business Account is your company’s way to communicate directly with customers.

All Business Accounts on WhatsApp needs verification. While any verified account might seem official, the term "official" is reserved for accounts that meet specific criteria.

There are two types of WhatsApp Business Accounts: The Business Account and the Official Business Account.

WhatsApp Business Account

Any account using the WhatsApp Business API or the WhatsApp enterprise app will automatically be listed as a Business Account. WhatsApp verifies the authenticity of a brand for each account in the WhatsApp Business API.

You can help customers learn more about the company by filling out the business info, including business website, address, and hours.

Verified Business Accounts

If your WhatsApp Account is a Business Account, the Display Name is only shown in the Contacts view (in a smaller font size). In all other views, the phone number is displayed. As long as the number is not saved to contacts only the number is shown. (Unless the account is Business verified, in which case the business display name will be visible, see Meta Business Verification).

Any business that has a record of high quality messaging, has passed the Display Name Review, upon meeting the necessary criteria, will have their display name automatically shown in the chat.

Read our Business Verification documentation.

Official WhatsApp Business Account

In contrast to the regular Business Account, the Official Business Account has a blue checkmark badge in its profile and the name of the business is visible in the chat list, chat screens and contacts view instead of the phone number, even if the user hasn't added the business to their address book.

This is WhatsApp's way of confirming that an authentic, reputable brand is the owner of this account. Only select companies will have an Official account. This decision depends on a variety of factors like brand recognition and other policies and it is not possible to pay to upgrade a Business account to an Official business account.

Requirements for approval

To receive the OBA status, the company needs to reach a number of notability requirements. In addition to following WhatsApp's Commerce and Business Policies, businesses need to:

Business Verification

Businesses can only apply for OBA after successfully going through Business Verification.

Understanding Notability

Notability requires a business to represent a well-known, often searched brand or entity. This should not be taken as a signal of the authenticity of the business. A business is considered authentic if they have gone through the Business Verification which verifies the business as a legal entity and their access to the business.

Notability, on the other hand, reflects a substantial presence in online news articles. Notability is assessed based on an account’s presence in news articles from publications with sizable audiences. Meta does not consider paid or promotional content as sources for review, including business or app listings.

Official business accounts are issued at the phone number and display name level. Meta assesses notability for the Display Name of the business account that is requesting OBA status —If the display name is changed after receiving the OBA status, the account will need to go through the approval process again.

Additionally, previous OBA approvals within a WhatsApp Business Account do not guarantee approval for other numbers (with different display names) associated with that account. If your WABA contains one main parent brand and the phone number associated with that brand meet notability requirements, we suggest updating the display names for the child brands as follows: '{{sub-brand name}} by {{notable name}}'.

Denied Requests

If your OBA request has been denied, it means the Meta team has carefully reviewed your account, and unfortunately, your account is not eligible for the OBA status at this time. Currently, these decisions cannot be appealed.

Businesses can continue to grow their presence and wait 30 days before submitting another Official Business Account request —It may take time to build the business's presence in news articles as described above.

In the meantime, this decision doesn't limit your ability to share your business details. Each phone number also has a business profile which includes profile picture, email, website, and business description. These are fields that you can edit at any time.

Application process

You can can apply for an OBA directly from WhatsApp Manager. Minimum requirements to submit an OBA request

• Verified Business Manager with an approved Display Name that is supported by the client’s external branding (Business Manager cannot belong to another company or agency, and the display name cannot be under review or rejected)

• The number quality must be ‘high’ at the time the application is made and the minimum Messaging Limit is 1k.

• Brand doesn't violate WhatsApp's policies, especially its Commerce Policy

• Company needs to have more than 500 employees and/or $50 million revenue/year

• The 2FA should be enabled at the moment of application

• If appealing a decision: number of the initial request with Meta

Please note that 360dialog cannot guarantee that any account will be promoted to an Official Business Account. The review process is conducted by the WhatsApp API Support Team and can take up to 7 days.

Important: When a number receives an OBA status, this status is tied to the current Display Name of the account. If the display name needs to be changed, we recommend it is done before getting the OBA, otherwise a Meta appeal is needed. WhatsApp Manager > Phone Numbers > Profile

Click Submit Request and fill out the required information. You can submit up to 5 supporting links to show that the business is notable. It's important to choose them carefully, since you can only submit a new request after 30 days if it is rejected.

Please keep in mind important requirements to strengthen your case before submitting it for approval:

• Clear and complete information on your website (about products and services, mentioning your display name with address and phone number on it);

• Your display name should match your website

• Have at least 5 external media coverage links from newspapers, magazines, etc. Do not use links of your own website/social media, or articles older than 12 months, these are not valid.

  • Random new articles without any relevance to the business are not valid too;

  • The links provided should be recent (published in the last 12 months);

  • Paid or sponsored links and content are not accepted by Meta, these kinds of sources are being constantly improved by the Meta team and shouldn’t be sent on your application;

  • Social media are not considered support links by Meta, don’t attach them in your attempt;

• Having a high number of likes in your Facebook page can help you prove relevance

• Adding number of employees and profitability can help you prove relevance

If you created your account using the Classic Signup (On Behalf Of WABA), please reach out to us via Support Widget so our team is able to assist.