Shared WhatsApp inbox · one number, every teammate
Customers don’t care who holds the phone. When one person has the WhatsApp number, every chat waits for them: on their lunch break, their day off, their way home.
WhatsApp on one phone works until two people need to answer at once, or the person holding it goes home. EliteTeQ Inbox moves your business number into a shared inbox that works on any computer or phone, and gives every chat a clear owner. Staff in Addis Ababa and Adama answer the same +251 number at the same time.
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WhatsApp or call +1 214 423 5355 · a person replies, usually in under 10 minutes
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Real screen · demo workspace with example data
Customers message at nine at night and nobody answers until morning.
EliteTeQ Inbox
Set office hours for each number, in Addis Ababa time (EAT). After hours, customers get your away message straight away, and their chat waits at the top of the list for the morning.
Selam ends up answering every chat, because the phone lives at the till.
EliteTeQ Inbox
Tick who handles the number and turn on auto-assign. Each new customer goes to the next person in turn.
The 24 hours passed and now WhatsApp won’t let us reply.
EliteTeQ Inbox
Every chat shows how long you have left to reply. When the window closes, send an approved template from the same box.
Your customers should never wait because the phone is in someone else’s pocket.
Put your WhatsApp Business number in a shared inbox. Every teammate signs in on their own computer or phone, and the chats still waiting rise to the top.
You keep the same number your customers already have, and the WhatsApp Business app on your phone can stay connected.
More people answering. Nobody stepping on each other.
Set Up My Team InboxWith EliteTeQ Inbox, you can
A shared WhatsApp inbox lets several staff answer customers from one WhatsApp Business number at the same time, each from their own login. EliteTeQ Inbox does this on the official WhatsApp Business Platform: chats are assigned to one teammate, internal comments stay inside the team, and the owner sees every conversation in Ethiopia.
| Product | EliteTeQ Inbox, by EliteTeQ Softwares Limited (Nairobi, Kenya) |
|---|---|
| What it is | A WhatsApp team inbox and CRM |
| Channels | WhatsApp Business (official Cloud API, works alongside the WhatsApp Business app), Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, Facebook and Instagram comments |
| Works on | Any browser; installs on Android and iPhone |
| Price | From $29 a month; $59 Growth; $99 Business with unlimited people; a year costs 10 months |
| Free trial | 7 days, every feature open |
| WhatsApp numbers | 1 to 3 included by plan; up to 20 per business (Meta’s limit once the business is verified with Meta) |
| In Ethiopia | +251 WhatsApp Business numbers, office hours on Addis Ababa time (EAT) |
| Languages | Customers write in Amharic, Afaan Oromo and English |
| Setup | About 40 minutes, or done with you on WhatsApp |
| Last reviewed | 2026-11-01 |
The everyday problems of one business phone, one at a time.
Assign a chat by hand, or turn on auto-assign so each new customer goes to the next teammate in turn. Transfer a chat with a handover note and the new owner gets an alert.
Real screen · demo workspace with example data
New customers get a greeting during office hours. Anyone who writes while you’re closed gets an away message, at most once every 12 hours. Hours run in Addis Ababa time (EAT).
Real screen · demo workspace with example data
WhatsApp lets you reply freely for 24 hours after a customer writes. After that, or to message someone new, you send a template approved by WhatsApp. Create and track them in the app.
Real screen · demo workspace with example data
Install EliteTeQ Inbox on Android or iPhone from the browser. It looks and works like WhatsApp, with sounds, pop-ups and an unread badge.
Real screen · demo workspace with example data
7 days free · no card needed
Customers message the same number they always have; your team answers from the inbox.
Selam messages your +251 business number. The chat appears in the inbox for everyone allowed to see that number.
Auto-assign gives new chats to the next teammate in turn, or anyone can take it. The chat shows whose it is.
The owner leaves an internal comment, “@Dawit offer free delivery”, that the customer never sees.
Waiting chats rise to the top, and a countdown shows how long you have before WhatsApp’s 24-hour reply window closes.
A shared inbox helps your team see messages. EliteTeQ goes further, connecting every conversation to lead management, team coordination and sales visibility.
You can keep the app; the inbox adds the team, in Addis Ababa, Adama or anywhere else.
| WhatsApp Business app alone | With EliteTeQ Inbox |
|---|---|
| One phone, plus a few linked devices | Every teammate on their own login |
| No way to say who handles a chat | Assign, transfer and auto-assign |
| Notes to staff go in another chat | Internal comments inside the chat |
| No record of who replied, or how fast | Reply speed per teammate in reports |
| Each number on its own phone | Several numbers in one inbox (Business plan) |
Customers keep messaging the same number, in its +251 format; only the way your team answers changes.
In Ethiopia, many customers also use Telegram, which EliteTeQ Inbox does not connect to yet. For businesses in Addis Ababa and beyond that sell on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, it puts those chats in one list the whole team shares.
Customers in Ethiopia write in Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya and English. Your team replies in the customer’s language inside the 24-hour window; template messages can currently be created in English.
Office hours are set day by day for each number. A common setup in Addis Ababa: weekdays open, Saturday mornings open, Sunday closed. Anyone who writes while you are closed gets your away message, at most once every 12 hours, and the chat waits at the top of the list for the morning.
Customers in Ethiopia pay with telebirr, CBE Birr, M-Pesa, cards and bank transfers, so when a sale closes on WhatsApp the customer may confirm payment in the chat, and your team needs to see that message quickly.
Sidama Region · a lakeside city with a major industrial park
Hawassa combines a lakeside leisure and hospitality trade with a large industrial park, which gives it two distinct customer bases: weekend and holiday visitors, and a substantial wage-earning workforce with regular pay cycles. That makes demand more predictable than in agricultural towns, and rewards systems that handle both fast table service and everyday convenience retail. The industrial park provides a large wage-earning workforce on regular pay cycles while the lakeside draws weekend visitors — two predictable but unrelated demand curves. When Hawassa trade peaks, auto-assign spreads new WhatsApp chats across whoever is on shift.
Addis Ababa · Ethiopia's capital and the seat of the African Union
Addis Ababa concentrates Ethiopia's formal retail, hospitality and institutional trade, with a large diplomatic and international-organisation presence alongside the vast Merkato trading area. Mobile money use is growing quickly alongside cash. Merkato trades at enormous scale while the diplomatic and international-organisation districts carry a quite different basket, and both sit in one city. When Addis Ababa trade peaks, auto-assign spreads new WhatsApp chats across whoever is on shift.
Dire Dawa · an eastern trade and rail city
Dire Dawa is a commercial city on the rail corridor toward Djibouti, which makes import and transit trade a large share of its activity and ties restocking to freight schedules. Cash dominates settlement, with cross-border influence on pricing from the Djibouti corridor. The rail corridor toward Djibouti makes import and transit trade central, tying restocking to freight rather than local demand. When Dire Dawa trade peaks, auto-assign spreads new WhatsApp chats across whoever is on shift.
Reviewed by the EliteTeQ team ·
Not answered here? A person from our team replies on WhatsApp.
Ask a humanYes, and both replies are sent. To avoid double answers, assign the chat to one person.
Yes. Agents can be limited to certain numbers. Owners and admins always see everything.
The greeting goes once to new customers during office hours. The away message goes to anyone who writes while you’re closed, at most once every 12 hours. Both are set per number.
It has been more than 24 hours since the customer last wrote. WhatsApp only allows an approved template until they reply again.
New businesses can start conversations with 250 people a day. Meta raises it to 1,000, 10,000 and beyond after business verification and good-quality messaging. Replies to people who wrote first don’t count.
Never. Comments are only for your team. Type @ and a name to mention a teammate.
Yes. Everyone signs in to EliteTeQ Inbox with their own login, from any computer or phone, and answers from the same business number. Chats can be assigned, transferred or shared out in turn, and agents can be limited to the numbers they handle. Office hours run on Addis Ababa time (EAT).
They get your away message straight away, at most once every 12 hours, and their chat waits at the top of the list for the morning. Office hours are set per number, on Addis Ababa time (EAT).
WhatsApp rules on this page, from Meta:WhatsApp Business Platform pricing (Meta)Messaging limits (Meta)Message templates (Meta)Business phone numbers and limits (Meta)About the WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta)
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