Most first-time WhatsApp bot builds fail at the same spot: the Phone Number ID, not the access token.
It's easy to grab your actual WhatsApp number and paste it into your webhook payload — that's the intuitive move. But Meta's API wants the internal Phone Number ID from the developer portal instead, a separate value buried under WhatsApp → API Setup, not anywhere near the number itself.
Send a message using the wrong ID and you'll get a generic error that doesn't mention the field name at all — which is why this trips up almost everyone the first time, not just careless builders.
The fix:
Go to your Meta App dashboard → WhatsApp → API Setup, and copy the value labeled exactly "Phone Number ID" — not the number, not the App ID. That's the value every webhook payload needs.
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