WhatsApp Business channels: how to create one, what to post and what they can't do
Published on October 18, 2026
A WhatsApp Business channel works like a notice board inside WhatsApp.
The business posts, followers read, and the conversation doesn’t happen there.
The official page about channels on the WhatsApp Business app describes a channel as a one-way broadcast: followers can’t reply to updates or message the admins, they can only react with an emoji or vote in a poll.
That shapes how you use it.
A channel is for news, this week’s menu, a holiday notice or a look behind the counter.
Orders, price questions and bookings still come in through a regular chat with the business.
How to create a channel
On Android, according to the official page on creating a channel, the steps are:
- Tap Updates, then the three-dot More icon.
- Tap Create channel, then Continue.
- Add a channel name. A description and an icon are optional, and you can change them whenever you like.
- Tap Create channel.
- If you want, pick contacts to invite, add a message and send. You can skip this step and invite people later.
Every channel gets its own link and QR code, which you can share in chats, on your status and in other apps, per the create channel page.
That’s how customers find you: the link in your Instagram bio, the QR code at the counter.
If Create channel doesn’t show up in your app, your phone isn’t broken.
The page about channels on the WhatsApp Business app notes that the rollout is gradual and that some features, like creating a channel, might not be available to you yet.
What you can post
Text, images, videos, stickers, links, audio and polls, according to the page about channels on the WhatsApp Business app.
The one-way rule applies to all of them: people see, react or vote, and that’s it.
You can delete an update up to 30 days after sending it, and it disappears for everyone, per the page on deleting channel updates.
Anything already forwarded to other chats, and media someone saved to their phone, stays with those people.
So double-check prices and dates before you post.
Who sees what
- Followers don’t see your business’s profile name, profile picture or phone number, because updates are sent from the channel, according to the page about channels on the WhatsApp Business app.
- The other way around, admins can see a follower’s profile name and, depending on that person’s privacy settings, their profile photo next to a reaction or poll vote, according to the page about WhatsApp Channels.
- People who just visit the channel can’t see who follows it, per the page about WhatsApp Channels.
One detail matters if you sell: channel notifications are muted by default, and followers have to turn on notifications for that channel to get alerts, per the page about WhatsApp Channels.
Posting to your channel doesn’t guarantee a customer’s phone will buzz.
Who helps you post
The channel owner can invite up to 16 people to help manage it, per the page on inviting and dismissing channel admins.
Before you invite someone from your team, it’s worth knowing three things:
- The invite is sent as a chat message from your own WhatsApp account, not from the channel, so the person you invite can see your phone number, according to the admins page.
- Once they accept, an admin can edit channel info and create, edit or delete any update, but only the owner can delete the channel, per the admins page.
- An invite expires after 7 days if it isn’t accepted, and Meta recommends that every admin turn on two-step verification, according to the admins page.
Metrics
Channel insights, the channel’s stats screen, cover the last 30 days: accounts reached, top regions and how many people followed or unfollowed.
You also see emoji reactions and poll results, according to the page about channels on the WhatsApp Business app.
You can tell whether an update traveled far.
You can’t tell who bought.
What a channel doesn’t solve
A channel announces.
Someone who reads the promotion and wants to know if the item still comes in blue has to leave the channel and open a chat with the business, because there’s nowhere to reply.
That chat is where the sale is made or lost, especially when it comes in at night or in the middle of a busy day.
Where we come in
When a channel works, it starts conversations, and conversations need quick answers.
We set up and run the assistant for those chats on your business’s WhatsApp: it works from your own business content, books on the calendar you already use and brings in someone from your team when the topic needs a person.