WhatsApp Introduces Verified Business Accounts

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WhatsApp Introduces Verified Business Accounts

It looks like WhatsApp is gearing towards helping users engage with businesses.

The Facebook owned instant messaging service is planning on rolling out a new feature – verified business accounts, which like Facebook will tag some business accounts with a green tick symbol whatsapp verified.jpg once they have been certified by WhatsApp.

Also WhatsApp will supposedly be expanding its offers to businesses by creating an entirely new app specifically for business use beyond the WhatsApp app.

The chat experience within WhatsApp will be a little different when users are engaging with verified businesses with the WhatsApp saying messages will show up in yellow chat bubbles instead of green, and the messages won’t be able to be delete but you will be able to block them if you wish to terminate contact.

WhatsApp have said that business display names will work just like normal contacts, “If you already have a business’s phone number saved in your address book, the name you will see is the name you have saved in your address book. If you don’t have a business’s phone number saved in your address book, the name you will see is the name the business has chosen for themselves.”

Business verifications have only been granted to a small number of businesses with the company stating “WhatsApp business verification is currently limited to a small number of businesses participating in a pilot program.”

For now, the new feature is just a pilot program but in the coming months will likely expand to all businesses. So if you are interested in opening up a new channel of communication for your clients, now is the time to consider WhatsApp… 

Luke Stanley