Dentolize · Hidden-Number WhatsApp Contacts Walkthrough
On this pageWhat clinic staff might reportWhat to check when troubleshooting

For Support

What clinic staff might report

"A WhatsApp conversation shows a weird code instead of a phone number." That's expected for a contact using WhatsApp's number-privacy setting — the code (e.g. EG.1693676845194969) is Meta's internal ID for that contact, shown as a last-resort fallback when there's no phone number and no @username on file either. Staff can still reply normally; the reply is addressed correctly behind the scenes. See Identifying a Contact for what the ID actually is.

"This contact shows an @username instead of a phone number — is that right?" Yes, if WhatsApp gave Dentolize the contact's username (which it does when available), that's preferred over showing the raw ID. It's still not a phone number, and there's no way to convert it into one from inside Dentolize.

"I can't see a phone number for this patient in the Duplicate check / New Patient button." By design — the "duplicate contact" popover on the Chats screen only runs when the conversation has a phone number to check against (Chats.js:154-159). A hidden-number conversation can't be checked for duplicates, since there's no number to match on.

"A new WhatsApp contact didn't get auto-created as a lead." Check whether their conversation shows a phone number or a username/ID fallback. Lead auto-creation only runs for conversations with a phone number on file — a contact who has only ever messaged with their number hidden won't get an automatic lead, even if lead auto-creation is enabled for the clinic. This is a known, documented limitation (see For Quality), not a bug to file — unless the contact's number should be visible per WhatsApp's own rules (recent exchange, in contact book) and still isn't coming through, which would be worth escalating.

"A patient says our WhatsApp reply never reached them." If they're a hidden-number contact, confirm the reply was sent after this fix shipped — before it, replies to such a contact were addressed with the phone-style field Meta silently ignores for them, so nothing would have arrived. After this fix, replies pick the right address automatically; if a patient still reports non-delivery, escalate normally (it's no longer expected behavior).

"A patient asked for a WhatsApp payment link and got an error." If they're a hidden-number (ID-only) contact, this is a known gap — Dentolize can't generate a payment link without a dialable phone number, and the code now fails this explicitly rather than sending a broken link. Offer another payment channel for that patient.

What to check when troubleshooting

  • Does the conversation show a phone number, @username, or a raw ID? That tells you immediately which of the three addressing modes you're dealing with.
  • Is the patient linked (name shown as a link) or unlinked (plain name)? Only phone-having conversations auto-link to patient records or auto-create leads.
  • If a reply genuinely isn't arriving, that's a Meta/WhatsApp Cloud API-level issue to escalate to engineering with the conversation ID — not something support can resolve by re-sending.