The WhatsApp Business app is Meta's free app for small businesses, installed on a phone like regular WhatsApp but with a business profile, a catalog, quick replies, labels, and automated greeting and away messages. One number lives on one phone, with a few linked devices for the same account. It is where most Indian food businesses start: a number on a sticker, a catalog of dishes, and orders typed into the chat. A number can be registered on either the app or the WhatsApp Business API, so moving to the API means moving the number.
Why it matters
The app is free and quick, which is exactly right for the first few months. Its limits show up with volume. Orders live inside chats, so someone has to read each one, write it on a pad and total it. Broadcast lists stop at 256 contacts and reach only people who saved your number. There is no bot, no payment captured against an order, and no record you can filter by day or by item. When two staff need to answer at once, they share one phone. The post on why restaurants outgrow the WhatsApp Business app describes the usual breaking points, and the app features worth using covers how to get the most out of it while it still fits.
Example
A home baker in Jaipur takes 8 to 10 cake orders a day on the app: the customer sends a photo, she replies with a price, confirms with a UPI screenshot and writes the date on a wall calendar. This works. Six months later she is at 25 orders a day with two helpers, and the phone is the bottleneck: missed messages, a double-booked Saturday, and no way to see how much April earned without scrolling through chats. At that volume, the same number on the API with an ordering system saves the helper's hours and gives her a sales report, for a software cost that is small against ₹4 lakh or more of monthly orders.
Tezzu runs on the WhatsApp Business API: your existing number is connected through Meta's embedded signup, and orders arrive in a dashboard and on the staff app rather than in a chat you have to read.