Calls Overview
Voice calls on WhatsApp, carried over your own SIP trunks — how inbound and outbound work, what you need before you start, and where everything lives.
Customers can call your WhatsApp Business number, and your agents can call them back — with the audio landing on the phone system you already run. Instead of a separate softphone or a web tab, calls are relayed over SIP to your PBX, dialer or contact-centre platform, and every call is recorded in the dashboard with its outcome and duration.
In the app: Dashboard → Automation → Calls
You need a phone system
Calling is a SIP interconnect, not a built-in dialer. You need a PBX, SIP provider or contact-centre platform that can accept and place SIP calls — Asterisk, FreePBX, 3CX, Genesys, Ozonetel and similar all work.
The two directions
A trunk is the SIP link between us and your phone system. Every trunk has a direction, and the direction is named from your point of view — not ours. This is the single easiest thing to get backwards, so it is worth reading twice.
| Direction | What happens | You configure |
|---|---|---|
| Inbound | A WhatsApp user calls your business number. We receive it and deliver it to your phone system. | Where we should send the call — one or more SIP targets |
| Outbound | Your phone system places a WhatsApp call to a customer. We relay it to WhatsApp. | Nothing to enter — we issue you a sip: endpoint to dial |
Put simply: inbound is a call you receive, outbound is a call you place. A trunk carries one direction only, and the direction cannot be changed after the trunk is created — if you need both, create two trunks.
Inbound
Customer taps "Call" in WhatsApp
→ WhatsApp routes the call to us
→ We pick your inbound trunk for that number
→ We deliver it to your SIP target (your PBX rings)
→ Your agent answers; audio is relayed both waysOutbound
Your PBX dials sip:<your-endpoint>@sip.pingmate.app
→ We check the customer has granted call permission
→ We relay the call to WhatsApp
→ The customer's WhatsApp rings
→ They answer; audio is relayed both waysOutbound is not a phone line
You cannot dial arbitrary phone numbers over an outbound trunk. The person you are calling must be a WhatsApp user who has granted your business permission to call them, and the call is delivered inside WhatsApp — not over the telephone network. See Call permissions.
Before you start
Connect a WhatsApp number
Calling attaches to a WhatsApp Business number that is already connected and verified. See Onboarding if you have not connected one yet.
Turn on calling for that number
Go to Dashboard → Connections, open the ⋮ menu on the number's card and choose Turn on calling. There is nothing to fill in — we configure everything on the WhatsApp side for you.
Two things can go wrong here, and the dialog tells you which:
- "Calling can't be set up for numbers on <provider> yet." — WhatsApp only accepts the calling configuration from the provider that handles that number's messaging. Numbers that came in through a different provider cannot be switched over.
- "Calling was set up, but Meta reports: …" — the configuration was accepted but WhatsApp is not routing calls yet, and the message shown is WhatsApp's own explanation verbatim. Common causes are a number that is still in review or a business verification that has not completed.
Once calling is on, the number's card shows a Calling badge — or Calling (pending) while WhatsApp has not confirmed it.
Know the trade-off
Turning calling on switches that number over to us for calls. If you currently take WhatsApp calls through another tool, they will stop arriving there. Messaging is unaffected. You can turn calling off again at any time from the same menu, which hands the number back to WhatsApp's standard calling behaviour.
Have your SIP details ready
For an inbound trunk you need the public SIP address of your phone system. For an outbound trunk you need somewhere to configure a SIP trunk on your side. Both are covered in Connect your phone system.
Who can use it
Calls and SIP trunks are account-level settings, available to the account owner only. Agents do not see the Calls section at all, and cannot create, edit or view trunks or call history — even with every other permission enabled.
The Calls page
Dashboard → Automation → Calls has two tabs, each with its own filters:
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Trunks | Every trunk on the account, with its direction, endpoint, authentication mode, transport and active state. Search by name, description or endpoint; filter by direction. |
| Call history | Every call relayed between WhatsApp and your phone system, with contact, direction, outcome, duration and call-permission state. Filter by outcome. |
Click any trunk row to open its side panel, where you manage credentials, the IP allowlist, and the active switch. New trunk (top right) creates one.
What's next
SIP trunks
Create a trunk and what every setting does — destinations, transport, codecs, DTMF and capacity limits.
Authentication
Digest credentials and the IP allowlist, and which credential belongs to which leg of the call.
Connect your phone system
Network requirements and configuration for Asterisk, FreePBX, 3CX and generic SIP platforms.
Test a trunk
A pre-flight checklist, then place a real test call in each direction and read the result.
Call permissions
When you may call a customer, how to ask, and the limits WhatsApp enforces.
Call history
Every call outcome explained, plus a troubleshooting table for calls that did not connect.
Good to know
How is this guide?
Opt-In / Opt-Out
Manage customer consent for WhatsApp messaging — the opt-out toggle, keyword-based opt-out, and compliance best practices.
SIP Trunks
Create inbound and outbound trunks, and a complete reference for every setting — destinations, transport, media, DTMF, codecs, capacity limits and caller ID.