Disconnecting
WhatsApp Settings, then the Account tab, then Disconnect WhatsApp. It asks you to confirm.
What goes: our connection to the number. Messages stop arriving in ServiceM8 and the Setup tab offers “Connect WhatsApp” again.
What stays: everything else. Your business details, your knowledge notes, the Chat Assistant’s setup, every conversation, and every link between a conversation and a job. Connecting again picks up where you were.
What is not touched: the number itself. Nothing is done to it at WhatsApp, and nothing changes on your phone. If you were on the “keep my app” route the app carries on as it was, minus the link to ServiceM8.
Connecting again
Same steps as the first time: connecting your number. The same number is fine. This is also how you get the chat-history offer back if it was missed the first time, because the offer only appears in the 24 hours after a connection is made.
Moving to a different number
Disconnect the old one, then connect the new one. Conversations from the old number stay in the add-on and on their jobs.
One number, one ServiceM8 account
A WhatsApp number belongs to one ServiceM8 account at a time. If you connect a number that is already connected to another of your ServiceM8 accounts, it moves. The old account keeps its settings and conversations but stops receiving on that number.
Two ways a “keep my app” connection lapses by itself
Both are WhatsApp’s behaviour, and neither gives any warning.
Changing phones, or re-registering WhatsApp Business. The connection drops and comes back within a few minutes. Give it five before doing anything.
Not opening the WhatsApp Business app for 14 days. WhatsApp treats the connection to ServiceM8 as a linked device, the same as WhatsApp Web, and linked devices are signed out if the phone app is not opened for a fortnight. Messages stop syncing and nothing tells you. If your connected phone is a spare that lives in a drawer, open the app on it once a week. If sync has stopped, opening the app is usually all it takes to restart it.