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Test numbers require team beta access. When the beta is offered on the Numbers page, a team owner or admin selects Join on its beta row, reviews the terms and selects Accept and join. Inspector has its own beta row. Without test-number access, creation and use are blocked; existing numbers remain available for review, stopping, and deletion. Each Sandbox project can have project-owned testing numbers. These are testMode sessions and do not connect to real WhatsApp recipients.

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List numbers

An team key with sessions:read can list the project’s sessions:
Testing-number rows have testMode: true. Use the returned session identifier and phone value instead of assuming a fixed number count or number format.

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Add a testing number

Use the public Platform API with an team key:
projectId is required. country accepts any of the 243 WhatsApp-supported ISO alpha-2 country codes and defaults to US. The Console country picker shows the complete searchable list with flags, country names, short names, and calling codes. If you omit name, the name remains unset and Console and Inspector use the generated phone number as the fallback label. Phone-format metadata validates the generated identity internally. A successful create response means the API-controlled device is connected and ready. Testing numbers communicate only with active testing numbers in the same project. Sending to a malformed, unknown, stopped, removed, or cross-project recipient returns the same 404 Not Found response. The rejected send creates no chat, contact, message, or recipient state. Messages, media, groups, channels, contacts, presence, profiles, business catalogs, and other public session actions update one shared simulated account that is visible from both the API-controlled device and Inspector. The API-controlled device accepts a message while the recipient’s Inspector companion is closed and delivers the pending message when that companion reconnects. Removing the recipient cancels its pending messages. Inspector completes normal client initialization against the simulated session. Optional WhatsApp capabilities that are not simulated remain unavailable without interrupting messaging or reconnecting the testing number.

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Start, stop, or remove a testing number

Use an team key with sessions:manage:
Stopping keeps the testing-number record and settings. A successful start response means the API-controlled device is ready again; a successful stop response pauses the API-controlled device without unlinking an owned Inspector device. These operations are safe to repeat. Removal closes an open Inspector session and clears the number’s simulated state before the record disappears. If the number cannot be closed, the removal request fails and leaves the record available for a retry. Removal is permanent. Testing numbers do not have retained Hosted Message Storage history and cannot contact real recipients.

Inspector ownership and devices

Open a testing session in the desktop app.

Sandbox limits

Current Free number-tier limits.