Applicable to End Users
Archiving WhatsApp communication data is a regulatory compliance requirement for your organization. You must onboard your WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business account to WhatsApp Cloud Capture to archive your communication data on these applications. After you onboard, a parallel web session of your account is established with the Smarsh server.
You can use your mobile number or an enterprise number with WhatsApp Cloud Capture. Before you onboard your account to WhatsApp Cloud Capture, ensure that you have saved all your mobile contacts in the international format with the country code prefix.
Note
If you are sending a message to a contact that is not saved in your phone's contact list, you will not be able to know whom you are interacting with. WhatsApp Cloud Capture displays the screen name of the user only after the contact responds to your message.
To onboard your account to WhatsApp Cloud Capture:
Download and install WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business application on your mobile phone, if not already done.
Exchange a few messages using the application.
On your desktop, open the Welcome email received from Smarsh.
Note
The Welcome email is sent on working days from Monday to Friday, beginning at 2PM UTC. Based on the number of users onboarded on a particular day, the process may take up to an hour to complete.
Click the link in the email to open the QR code in a desktop browser.
The activation link is unique for each employee.
On your mobile phone, open the WhatsApp application.
Link your mobile phone to WhatsApp Cloud:
On an Android device:
Tap the
icon.
Tap Settings.
On an iOS device, tap Settings on the Home screen.
Tap Linked Devices > Link a Device.
> 
Scan the QR code displayed on your desktop browser.
Do not close the desktop browser until you see a confirmation that you are connected to an archiving service.
You will also receive a confirmation email or SMS.
Important
Do not start creating new groups and broadcast list immediately after onboarding to WhatsApp. This is to ensure Meta does not flag your account as a spam account and further ban your account.