Why is the customer name in my inbox not the name I saved?

You saved a customer as "Mrs. Rina — Catering" on your phone, but when she messages you, the inbox shows "rina 🌸" — or just her number. Why?

Where that name comes from

WhatsApp delivers the name the customer set for themselves (their own WhatsApp profile name) — not the name you saved on your phone. No WhatsApp Business API platform can read your phone's address book. So what you see is the customer's own version: sometimes a nickname, sometimes emoji, sometimes nothing at all.

The fix: save them in Contacts

WACO shows names from your WACO Contacts book. When a saved customer messages in, their name in the inbox is updated automatically to the name you saved — nothing else to do.

1. Open the Contacts menu in the dashboard.
2. Add your customers: import from a spreadsheet (columns named number and name are picked up automatically) — full walkthrough in the contacts guide.
3. Done. As soon as that customer messages you, the inbox uses your saved name.

Good to know

• It applies when the customer messages in. Names update as chats arrive from that number — not in bulk at import time.
• Your team's manual edits are safe. A name is only updated when it changes in your Contacts book — if an agent tidies a name directly in the inbox, the system won't overwrite it back.
• You can turn it off. Prefer the customer's own WhatsApp profile name? There's a switch at the top of the Contacts page.