WhatsApp has added support for verified business accounts in the latest beta version of the Android version of the app. The idea of business accounts within WhatsApp was announced by the company recently along with another app called WhatsApp business that they’re working on. The company has updated their FAQs section of their website to share some of the changes that people will see in WhatsApp because of the new business accounts.
The chat messaging app will now have business accounts within it and they can either be verified or not. Business accounts that would have been verified by WhatsApp will feature a green badge next to their name. The verification is a way for people to trust the business account as it would have been confirmed that the contact does belong to the business they wish to talk to.
Once you are talking to a business in WhatsApp, you’ll be notified that you indeed are talking to a business via yellow messages in the chat. You’ve probably seen a WhatsApp yellow message when they rolled out end-to-end encryption in the app. It’s just a yellow box with some text inside that pops up to alert you of some changes.
In the FAQs, WhatsApp revealed that the name of the business you will see depends on whether you have saved the contact or not. For example, if it is saved, you will see the name that you saved it as otherwise, you will see the name that the business chose for themselves when they created the business account from the WhatsApp business app.
You’ll also be able to block a business account in case you would like to stop them from contacting you. At the moment, the verification is still limited to a few companies that are participating in the test phase of WhatsApp business accounts. It is also reported that the launch of WhatsApp business app and accounts will start in India as it is one of the largest markets for the chat app.
Hopefully, these new features that aim to help businesses communicate with their customers will be accessible in Zimbabwe soon. WhatsApp has a lot of potential to help businesses locally, for example, reducing bank queues. Let us know what ways you’d like businesses to talk to you from the app and whether you think these business accounts will be useful.
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5 comments
This is a very positive development.Thank you for the article
i would love if they developed whatsapp for everyphone”java” like they have for facebook
I think it will be great feature. It will help reduce circulation of bogus messages that circulates using names of some organisations in pretext among other issues
Why cant we Zimbabweans built our own business app,than promoting silicone valley companies which do not even pay a cent for using our infrastructures.We have many programmers here ,who are lazy all they can say is our economy.
Great comment by @Vyrus, the feature will soon be available on the MyEvents App. In upcoming versions you’ll be able to purchase event tickets and reserve seats.