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This guide takes you from creating an account to your agent answering its first customer on WhatsApp. After you sign up, Popcorn opens Set up your agent, a three-step setup: Your business, Your agent and WhatsApp. Popcorn builds the agent from your website, or from a few lines you write, so most of your work is checking what it knows and connecting a number.

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Before you start

  • A website address for your business, such as yourbusiness.com. Your agent reads your main pages: products or services, prices, delivery and FAQ. If you only sell on Instagram or WhatsApp, you can describe your business in a few lines instead.
  • Admin access to your store, if you sell on Salla, Zid or Shopify, so you can approve Popcorn AI in your store dashboard.
  • For the last step: a mobile number that is not on WhatsApp yet and a Facebook account that can manage your business. The step takes about 5 minutes. See Connect a WhatsApp number.

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Create your account

On Get started with Popcorn AI, fill in Full name, Email, Phone and Password (9 or more characters), then click Sign up. Or click Continue with Google. If your account has no phone number yet, Popcorn asks for it on Add your phone number; click Continue and setup opens. If a teammate invited you by email, the sign-up page says “You’ve been invited to join workspace” and you join their workspace and land on Home. Setup is for the person who creates a workspace. See Team and roles. The button at the top right of setup switches between English and Arabic. Spanish is under Language in the workspace menu once you are in the app.

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Step 1: Your business

Tell your agent about your business has three ways in. Pick the one that fits.
1

Enter your website address

Type your address under Website (https:// is already there, so type yourbusiness.com) and click Read website. Popcorn shows “Reading your website…”, then “Setting up your workspace…” and “Reading N pages from your website”.
2

Connect your store if it is one

If the site runs on Salla, Zid or Shopify, Popcorn stops with “This is a platform store” and “Connect it so your agent can check stock and take orders.” Click Connect with your platform’s name, such as Connect Salla, to open your store’s window. Approve Popcorn AI there and the page carries on by itself. Click Continue without connecting to go on with the website alone; your agent then answers from its pages and cannot check stock or take orders until you connect the store under Integrations.
Popcorn picks the pages itself: the ones it recommends, up to 8. You can change what the agent knows later under Knowledge.
When the workspace and agent are ready, setup moves to step 2 on its own.
Only a workspace admin can finish setup. If you see “Only a workspace admin can finish setup. Ask an admin to sign in.”, ask an admin of the workspace to sign in.

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Step 2: Your agent

Check what your agent knows has what the agent learned on the left and Try it as a customer on the right. On a narrow screen, a View switch toggles between What it knows and Try it. Test chats are free and never reach WhatsApp. With no store, the page says “It read N pages on host. Try it as a customer, then put it on WhatsApp.” Ask about a policy from your site, then about something it does not cover, to see how the agent behaves when it does not know. With a store, Popcorn gives your agent the store: it can share products, take orders and track them, and the change is published for you. For about a minute the page reads “Your agent is reading your platform store” and you can already chat with the agent. Then Your store shows what the agent has: Fix what is wrong, ask your agent a few customer questions, then click Continue to WhatsApp. You can leave rows unfinished and return to them later: delivery and payment live under Shipping and payment.

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Step 3: WhatsApp

Put your agent on WhatsApp says what to have ready and what changes. Read the two panels, then click Connect WhatsApp: Meta’s window opens in the same click.
  • Before you connect (“About 5 minutes, in a Facebook window.”): a mobile number that is not on WhatsApp yet, like a new SIM, which gets one code by text or call; and a Facebook account, where you pick your business and the name customers see. If someone else manages your Facebook, click Ask a teammate.
  • After you connect: WhatsApp’s fee is free for the first 1,000 messages a month that your agent and your team send to answer customers, then about SAR 0.04 each, charged to a card in your Meta account. You answer chats that need a person from the Popcorn AI inbox. Customers who message your current number do not reach your agent, so you give them its new link.
If Meta needs to confirm the number, Confirm your number asks for the 6-digit code Meta sends to it: click Text me the code (or Call me instead), type the code and click Confirm and connect. After connecting, Popcorn checks that the number can send and receive (“Checking it can send and receive”). If something still needs you, setup stays on this step with Connected, one thing left, what to fix, and Check again. Click Back to return to step 2, or Finish later to leave setup for Home. Home then shows your agent’s setup with Check what I know and Connect WhatsApp, which reopen steps 2 and 3. See Home dashboard.
Your role needs permission to connect integrations to use Connect WhatsApp. Without it the button is off, and an admin has to do this step.

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Already on the WhatsApp Business app?

Click See what keeping the app changes for Keep using the WhatsApp Business app. Your number and chats stay in the app and your agent answers alongside you. The screen lists What changes: your agent answers everyone who messages the number, you keep WhatsApp Business open at least weekly, broadcast lists stop, linked devices sign out, and groups stay in the app. It also lists what to do first: update the app, turn off greeting and away messages, and keep your current number. Click Use a number for your agent to go back. The full guide is Use Popcorn with the WhatsApp Business app.

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When it is live

Setup ends on Your agent is on WhatsApp (“It answers new messages to your number.”):
  • Your agent’s WhatsApp link with Copy link. Message it from your own phone to see your agent answer, then put it in your Instagram bio, your website and your receipts.
  • When a chat needs you: your agent tells the customer your team will reply, marks the chat in your inbox and emails you. Invite your team opens Team members.
  • WhatsApp’s fee: without a card in your Meta account, WhatsApp stops delivering messages after the first 1,000 each month. Add card in Meta opens Meta’s billing page.
Click Open inbox or Go to Home.

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What setup created

The defaults on the agent are in Create an agent.

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Watch the first conversation

Open Inbox. Conversations your agent is replying to are under Agent. When it hands one over, because the customer asked for a person or the chat is one it leaves to your team, the conversation shows Needs you and your team takes it. Tests you ran during setup are under Test conversations. See Inbox overview.

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Where credits come in

  • Each reply your agent sends uses 1 credit, on WhatsApp and Website chat alike. Test chats from setup and Home are free.
  • Campaigns use credits too: 1 credit per 10 campaign messages and 1 credit per 5 automated campaign messages.
  • When credits run out the agent stops replying, every new customer message goes to your team, and the agent card in the sidebar reads Stopped, out of credits. Open Plan and billing in the workspace menu to buy credits or change plan.
Details: Plans and credits.

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If setup stops

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What happens next

  • Add knowledge. Create folders and articles under Knowledge. See Writing articles.
  • Review the agent. Open Agent, then your agent, to set its Voice and switches. See Agents overview and Test and publish.
  • Invite your team. Go to Settings → Team members. Roles decide who can publish agents, send campaigns, or only read. See Team and roles.
  • Show products in WhatsApp. Connect the Meta catalog so the agent can send product cards. See Products in WhatsApp.
  • Add the website chat. See Website Chat.
  • Send your first campaign. Create a template, wait for Meta’s approval, then send it to an audience. See Campaigns overview.

How Popcorn works

The concepts behind what you just set up.

Agent troubleshooting

Agent not replying, wrong answers, or changes not showing.