Most restaurants use about three of the WhatsApp Business features available to them: the chat, the camera and, occasionally, the catalog. The free app has a dozen more, each of which saves a few minutes a day or earns a few orders a week, and all of them take under an hour to set up in total.
This list goes through the features in groups: the ones that make you look like a real business, the ones that save time on every order, the ones that show your menu, the ones that bring customers back, and the ones for a small team. It ends with where the free app's features stop and the WhatsApp Business API begins, and a first-week setup order.
Features that make you look like a real business
1. Business profile
The profile is what a customer opens to decide whether you are genuine. Fill in all of it: business name as it appears on your board, category, address or delivery area, opening hours, a short description, an email and a link to your store page or Instagram. An empty profile reads like a fake account.
2. Short link and QR code
The app generates a wa.me link for your number and a matching QR code, both with an optional pre-filled message. The link goes in your Instagram bio and Google listing; the QR goes on the counter, the packaging and the menu card. This is the single feature that most directly produces orders.
3. Verified badge
The verified badge, which most owners still call the green tick, is granted by Meta to businesses that pass its verification process and is also offered through paid Meta Verified subscriptions in some countries. A small kitchen can do without it. Once your name is known, it helps customers tell you from impersonators.
Features that save time on every order
4. Quick replies
Save the messages you send constantly, each with a short keyword, and insert them by typing a slash in the chat. The menu, the payment request, "order received, ready in 30 minutes", "on its way", directions to the shop. Ten quick replies cover most of a day's typing. A set of ready-made ones is in 30 WhatsApp auto reply messages for food businesses.
5. Greeting message
Sent automatically to someone messaging you for the first time, or after a long gap. Use it to say how to order in two lines, when you deliver, and where the menu is. Examples that work for restaurants are in WhatsApp Business greeting message examples for restaurants.
6. Away message
Sent automatically outside the hours you set. Tell the customer when you open and that their order will be confirmed then, so they do not wait or go elsewhere. Pair it with the opening hours in the profile.
7. Labels
Tag chats with colour-coded labels such as New order, Paid, Cooking, Out for delivery and Regular, and filter the chat list by label. Labels are the closest thing the free app has to order statuses. They need someone to update them, and they are the first thing to slip in a rush, but at small volume they are worth it.
Features that show your menu
8. Catalog and collections
The catalog holds items with a photo, price, description and link, up to a few hundred items, and collections group them into sections such as Starters and Mains. Customers browse it from your profile or from a message, and you can send any item into a chat. Setup is in how to set up a WhatsApp Business catalog for your restaurant.
9. Cart
From the catalog, a customer can add items to a cart and send it to you as a single message listing everything. It is a tidy order summary, though the address, delivery charge and payment still happen in the conversation afterwards.
Features that bring customers back
10. Broadcast lists
Send one message to a list of up to 256 contacts, delivered as individual chats rather than a group. Only people who have saved your number receive it. Use it for a weekly offer or a new dish to customers who have said yes to hearing from you, and never for daily blasts to everyone on the phone.
11. WhatsApp Status
Photos and short videos visible for 24 hours to contacts who have your number saved. Today's special, a dish coming out of the tandoor, a Diwali box. It costs nothing and reaches people without sending them a message. Ideas are in how to use WhatsApp Status for restaurant marketing.
12. Click-to-WhatsApp ads
The app's Advertise option creates a Facebook or Instagram ad that opens a chat with your number when tapped. For a local kitchen, an ad shown to people within a few kilometres that lands them in your chat is a direct route from a reel to an order.
Features for a small team
13. Linked devices
Link a laptop, tablet or second phone to the same number so a helper can reply while you cook. Everyone sees every chat and there are no separate logins, and the number of linked devices is capped, but it is enough for two or three people.
14. Statistics
The app counts messages sent, delivered, read and received. It is no sales report. Still, a week where read counts drop after a broadcast tells you something about that broadcast.
Where the free app stops and the API begins
| Need | Free WhatsApp Business app | WhatsApp Business API through a platform |
|---|---|---|
| Menu customers can tap through | Catalog and cart, order still handled in chat | Interactive menu with variants, address and payment in the flow |
| Automatic replies | Greeting and away messages only | Full ordering bot and status updates |
| Payment confirmation | Manual, by screenshot | Gateway checkout marks the order paid |
| Broadcasts | 256 contacts, saved-number only | Approved templates to any opted-in customer, per-message charges |
| Staff access | Linked devices, shared view | Separate logins with roles |
| Reporting | Message counts | Orders, revenue and customer history |
| Cost | Free | Subscription, sometimes a per-order fee |
Where to start this week
- Complete the business profile and set opening hours.
- Write the greeting and away messages.
- Save ten quick replies, starting with the menu and the payment request.
- Build the catalog with your twenty best items and real photos.
- Generate the QR code and put it on the counter and the packaging; put the link in your Instagram bio and Google listing.
- Create five labels and use them for a week.
- Post one Status a day for a week and watch what happens.
When orders outgrow the app, which the complete guide to WhatsApp ordering systems describes in detail, the same number moves to the API. Tezzu is one way to do that: it connects your number through Meta's embedded signup, adds an ordering bot, a free store page, Razorpay payments, staff logins and a live dashboard, and charges a flat ₹10 per order with no commission. The steps are in how to set up WhatsApp ordering with Tezzu.
Set up the full ordering flow
The setup playbook goes from the free app's features to a complete ordering number, step by step.
Read the setup playbookFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business?
WhatsApp Business is a separate free app for businesses. It adds a business profile with hours and address, a catalog with a cart, quick replies, labels, greeting and away messages, a short link and QR code, broadcast lists, basic statistics and the option to create click-to-WhatsApp ads. Chats, calls and encryption work the same as in the regular app.
How do WhatsApp Business labels work?
Labels are colour-coded tags you attach to a chat or a message, such as New order, Paid or Regular customer, and you can filter the chat list by label. They are the free app's substitute for order statuses, useful at low volume as long as someone keeps them updated. The number of labels is limited, so keep the set small.
What are quick replies in WhatsApp Business?
Quick replies are saved messages with a keyword shortcut. Type a slash in any chat, pick the keyword, and the full message is inserted, including an image if you attached one. Restaurants use them for the menu, the payment request, order received and on-its-way messages, directions and opening hours.
Can I use WhatsApp Business features to take orders automatically?
Only partly. The free app's greeting and away messages are the extent of its automation; a person still reads each order, asks for the address, checks payment and confirms. Automatic ordering, where the customer taps through a menu and pays and the order arrives ready to cook, needs the WhatsApp Business API through an ordering platform.