Calls on WhatsApp Business: silencing unknown callers, call waiting and call links
Published on October 23, 2026
Anyone who has your business number can message you, and they can also call you on WhatsApp.
For a lot of people, calling is faster than typing, and the call lands on the same phone your team uses to answer messages.
It’s worth knowing how calls work before they get in the way of your support.
The rules below come from the WhatsApp Help Center.
Silencing unknown callers needs care
The official page on silencing unknown callers explains that anyone with your number can call you on WhatsApp.
An unknown caller is someone you haven’t been in touch with, someone you haven’t saved as a contact, or a suspicious number.
When a call like that comes in, WhatsApp shows whether the person is in your contacts, whether you have groups in common and which country the number is registered in.
On Android, the setting is under More options (the three dots), Settings, Privacy, Calls and Silence unknown callers, per the same official page.
With it on, your phone won’t ring, but the call still shows up in the Calls tab and in your notifications, and you can call back from there.
On a personal account, that helps a lot.
On a business number, a new customer is almost always an unknown caller.
If you turn the setting on, check the Calls tab a few times a day, or a customer’s first contact can slip by without anyone noticing.
One detail from the official page: once you call or message a silenced number, their calls stop being silenced.
For someone you don’t want to hear from again, the way to go is blocking, which we cover in how to block a contact on WhatsApp Business.
Call waiting
If another WhatsApp call comes in while you’re on a voice or video call, you get a notification and your current call keeps going, according to the official page on call waiting.
You have two options: Answer, which ends your current call and picks up the new one, or Decline, which keeps you on the current call.
Watch out with Answer: it doesn’t put the first customer on hold, it hangs up on them.
If that happens, send a short message to whoever got cut off.
The same page notes that regular phone calls may come with carrier charges, and that WhatsApp calls can also cost money while roaming or once you go over your data limit.
Call links for scheduled appointments
When a conversation needs voice or video at a set time, like a consultation, a video walkthrough of a property or going over a quote, a call link helps.
Per the official page on call links, anyone with a WhatsApp account can join the call by tapping the link, and every link has a different address that no one can guess.
Here are the steps, per the same page:
- Tap the Calls tab.
- Tap the new call icon (the phone with a plus sign).
- Tap Create new call link.
- Choose Voice or Video.
- If you want to approve who joins, turn on Require approval to join.
- Copy the link, send it on WhatsApp or share it in another app.
The link expires after 30 days without use, and people you’ve blocked can’t join through it, according to the official page on call links.
With approval on, anyone who taps the link goes to a waiting room that holds up to 128 people, and only the link’s creator decides who gets in, as the same page says.
A missed call is a customer too
A call nobody answered is a customer waiting for a reply.
Agree with your team on who checks the Calls tab and how quickly they reply.
A message like “We saw your call, how can we help?” usually gets things moving faster than calling back, because the person can answer when it suits them.
If the issue is calls after closing time, our post on how to answer WhatsApp after hours shows what you can do.
Where we come in
Calls stay with your team.
What we handle is the messages: we set up and run the assistant on your business WhatsApp, using your own business content, booking on the calendar you already use and bringing in someone from your team when the topic needs a person.
That way, whoever’s on a call isn’t leaving written conversations waiting.