Deliver JAMS Incident Management alerts over WhatsApp, and let responders reply straight from the chat to acknowledge or to restart, continue or cancel a failed job. It behaves like the SMS channel — same numbered reply menu, same escalation — but it travels over the internet rather than the phone network.
Plan availability: WhatsApp is included on Trial, Starter, Professional and Enterprise — not on Free. Messages are drawn from the same allowance as SMS, so the two share one pool rather than each having their own. See Plans & Billing.
Why you might want it
Reach. One WhatsApp sender reaches every country. SMS does not: in India the carrier route rewrites the sender ID so replies can never come back to us, and in Peru two-way SMS is unavailable altogether. For responders in those countries WhatsApp is the only channel that carries a working reply, not just a message.
It is also cheaper than SMS almost everywhere, and it is not segment-billed — a long alert is one message rather than two.
None of that means you should move everyone to it. Voice remains the most reliable channel for a 3 a.m. failure, and WhatsApp cannot break through Do Not Disturb. Treat it as the messaging channel for people SMS serves badly, not as a replacement for the phone.
The one thing to get right
Each person has to verify their own handset before WhatsApp can reach them. Ticking WhatsApp for somebody who has not verified does not fail loudly — the alert simply goes out on their other channels and WhatsApp is skipped.
That is deliberate (a send to a number with no WhatsApp account is rejected by Meta and would burn a retry), but it means verification is the step that quietly decides whether this channel works. Two things help:
- The recipient picker warns you. Add someone unverified and you'll see "Brey Jackson has not verified WhatsApp yet, so WhatsApp will skip them until they verify from their Settings page."
- The channel stays saved on the flow. It is not removed — once that person verifies, WhatsApp starts reaching them with no further edit.
Step 1 — Each responder verifies their handset
This runs inbound: JAMS Incident Management gives you a code and you send it to us on WhatsApp. That is the opposite of most services, and it is deliberate — you never have to know which number your WhatsApp is registered on. We learn it from the message you send, which matters if you carry two SIMs, and it means a typo can't leave you waiting for a message that was never going to arrive.
- Go to Settings (or Integrations → WhatsApp in the sidebar, which lands on the same card).
- Find the WhatsApp Notifications card and press Set up WhatsApp alerts.
- You'll get a short code, and the number to send it to.
- On your phone: tap Open WhatsApp and send — the chat opens with the message ready.
- On a desktop: open WhatsApp on your phone and send the code to the number shown. There's also a WhatsApp Web link that opens the same chat with the message prepared, and a Copy code button.
- Leave the page open. It detects the message automatically and flips to ✓ WhatsApp verified, and you'll get a short confirmation in the chat.
The code is single-use and expires after 15 minutes. If it lapses, press Set up WhatsApp alerts again for a fresh one.
Treat the code like a password. Whoever sends it, from whatever handset, is the person who will receive those alerts. Don't paste it into a group chat or a ticket.
To stop, press Disconnect WhatsApp on the same card.
Which number gets used
There is no WhatsApp number to fill in. The mobile number on your profile is what WhatsApp uses by default, and if your WhatsApp actually lives on a different handset we pick that up from your verification message and show it on the card.
| Channel | Number used |
|---|---|
| Voice call | Your mobile number — always |
| SMS | Your mobile number |
| The handset you verified from, falling back to your mobile |
Voice deliberately never follows the WhatsApp number. If it did, verifying from a personal handset would silently redirect your alert calls there too — which would fix messaging and break the most reliable channel you have.
If WhatsApp is on the same handset as your texts, pick one or the other. Ticking both SMS and WhatsApp for the same person means the same phone buzzes twice for every alert.
Step 2 — Turn it on for a flow
WhatsApp appears everywhere you already pick channels:
- Alert flows — /flows, when you add a recipient
- JAMS Connections, Azure Monitor, ServiceNow, Zendesk and Windows service monitoring — in the Channels to use row on each connection
Tick WhatsApp alongside whatever else that person should get. As with every other channel, a group or rotation recipient uses each member's own verified handset.
Channel posts are unaffected. A Teams or Slack channel target carries its own delivery and ignores the per-user channel boxes — WhatsApp included.
Replying to an alert
A WhatsApp alert carries the same numbered menu as an SMS:
[Nightly Sequence] JAMS Job Upload Payroll has failed.
Reply 1 to acknowledge
Reply 2 to restart job
Reply 3 to escalate
Reply with the digit. The acknowledgement is attributed to you by name, and it flows everywhere else the alert went — a Teams card for the same incident flips to "JAMS restart by Kevin Casey via WhatsApp reply" rather than implying somebody answered a phone.
For JAMS Scheduler failures the remediation options are the full set — restart, continue, cancel — exactly as on a voice call.
To stop receiving WhatsApp alerts, reply STOP in the chat. Reply START to resume. That only affects WhatsApp; your other channels keep working.
What happens when WhatsApp can't deliver
If a WhatsApp message is rejected — the recipient uninstalled WhatsApp, blocked the sender, or the account is unreachable — JAMS Incident Management falls back to SMS automatically and the alert still arrives. The history records both: the channel that delivered, and the WhatsApp error that caused the fallback.
One caveat worth knowing: in the countries where WhatsApp matters most, SMS is exactly the channel that works badly. In India and Peru the fallback will deliver the message but the recipient's reply may not reach us. If those responders are critical, give them voice as well.
Good to know
It is one allowance, shared with SMS. A WhatsApp message and a text draw from the same pool. Running that pool down stops both, and neither stops voice, email, push, Teams or Slack.
Alerts arrive as a pre-approved template. Meta only allows free-form text within 24 hours of your last message to us, and an incident alert is by definition unprompted — so every alert uses an approved message format. This is invisible in normal use; it's the reason the layout is fixed.
A suppressed alert costs nothing. If a maintenance window is open, no WhatsApp message is sent and none is billed.
Troubleshooting
"I ticked WhatsApp but nothing arrived." Check the person shows ✓ WhatsApp verified on their Settings page. An unverified handset is skipped silently by design. The recipient picker will also have warned you when the flow was saved.
"The verification code didn't work." Codes are single-use and last 15 minutes. Press Set up WhatsApp alerts again for a fresh one. Make sure you're sending from the handset you want alerts on — the number we learn is the one the message came from.
"I got the alert but my reply did nothing."
Reply with just the digit (1), in the same chat, not as a quoted reply to an older message. If the alert has already been acknowledged by someone else, later replies are ignored on purpose.
"One person gets WhatsApp, another doesn't." Almost always verification. Check each person individually rather than assuming the flow is wrong — the channel is per-person, and a rotation can be half-verified.
See also: Plans & Billing · No SMS or call arriving · Your profile