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The sandbox lets you experience a real WhatsApp conversation inside VGraple CRM before connecting your own number or touching Meta at all. Text a JOIN code to the platform's shared number from your own phone, and that phone becomes a live test customer in your workspace's inbox for 72 hours.
Try the sandbox: first 5 of 6 steps
- 1Find the sandbox card
- 2Scan the QR code, or open the
- 3Wait for the welcome reply
- 4Open the new conversation in your inbox
- 5Reply from the inbox and watch it
Most WhatsApp CRM tools ask for a Facebook Business account and a working phone number before you can see anything at all. The sandbox exists specifically to remove that wait: since it shares one already-connected platform number across every trial workspace, guarded by a unique JOIN code per workspace, you get the actual product experience, real inbound messages, real outbound replies, a real conversation thread, within seconds of reading this page.
Before you start
- The sandbox only appears for a workspace that has not connected its own WhatsApp number yet; once you connect a real number, the sandbox card and offer disappear from that workspace.
- You need any phone with WhatsApp installed, your own personal number is fine, since the sandbox never touches your real number's Meta setup.
- Nothing needs to be configured. The sandbox card shows automatically on the onboarding wizard's connect step and inside Settings, then Channels, then WhatsApp, whenever it is available.
- A platform administrator can disable the sandbox for the whole product with a kill switch; if the card never appears anywhere in your workspace, ask Support whether it is currently enabled.
Steps
- Find the sandbox card. It shows on the setup wizard's "Connect your WhatsApp" step, and as a standalone card wherever VGraple CRM offers the option to connect WhatsApp, with the text "No number ready? Try it on your own WhatsApp first."
Scan the QR code, or open the link. Scan the code with your phone's camera, click Open in WhatsApp instead, or manually message the platform sandbox number with the text
JOINfollowed by your workspace's unique code (for exampleJOIN A3B7K2).Wait for the welcome reply. Within seconds, the sandbox number replies confirming you are connected for 72 hours and explaining that messages you send there appear in the business's VGraple inbox, and replies come back through the same number. Say hello and watch it work.
Open the new conversation in your inbox. Switch to VGraple CRM's Inbox; your phone number now appears as a live conversation with the message you just sent. This is exactly how a customer's message will look once you connect a real number.
Reply from the inbox and watch it arrive on your phone. Type a reply in VGraple CRM and send it. It reaches your phone over WhatsApp within a few seconds, through the platform's sandbox number, the same delivery path a real customer reply takes.
Keep testing, or graduate to your own number. The first time you reply, a one-time follow-up message arrives on the sandbox participant's phone a few seconds later, pointing at Settings, then Channels, then WhatsApp to connect a real number. Text
STOPany time to leave the sandbox, or let the 72-hour session simply expire.
What you will see
A new conversation appears in your Inbox tagged with the sandbox participant's phone number, with a normal open conversation header (assign, tag, resolve) exactly like a real customer thread. The dashboard's sandbox card shows how many devices are currently connected if more than one person on your team has joined. Nothing about the conversation looks like a demo: it behaves like any other open thread in the inbox, right down to being assignable to a teammate and searchable alongside real conversations once you eventually connect a live number.
Settings and options
| Setting or option | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| JOIN code | Your workspace's unique code, generated once and reused for every sandbox session | Created automatically the first time the sandbox card loads |
| Session length | How long a joined phone stays connected before needing to JOIN again | 72 hours from the last JOIN |
| Daily message cap | The maximum outbound sandbox replies your workspace can send in a day | 50 messages a day |
| Minimum send gap | The shortest time allowed between two sandbox replies | 3 seconds |
| Message type | What the sandbox can carry | Text only; no templates, broadcasts or flows |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "That sandbox code was not recognized" | The JOIN code was typed with a typo, or copied from a different workspace | Check the exact code shown on your dashboard's sandbox card and resend JOIN <code> |
| "This sandbox session has ended" when replying | The participant already texted STOP, or never joined this workspace | Ask the participant to send JOIN <code> again from their phone |
| "This sandbox session expired" | More than 72 hours have passed since the last JOIN | Text JOIN <code> again from the same phone to restart the session |
| "More than 24 hours since their last message" | WhatsApp's service window closed because the participant has not messaged recently | Ask them to send any message again to reopen the window, since the sandbox cannot send templates |
| "Sandbox limit reached" | Your workspace hit the 50-messages-a-day cap | Wait until the next day, or connect your own WhatsApp number for unmetered sending |
| The sandbox card never shows up anywhere | A real WhatsApp number is already connected to this workspace, or the sandbox is disabled platform-wide | Expected once you have connected a number; otherwise ask Support whether the sandbox is currently enabled |
Related reading
Once you have seen the inbox work, connect your own WhatsApp number to move past the sandbox's limits, or explore the sample workspace for a broader look at contacts, tags and stages without messaging anyone at all.