WhatsApp announces its new app

It seems like the popular messaging app, WhatsApp, is going corporate by turning itself into a monetizing platform.

Taking a step forward in generating revenue, WhatsApp declared that it will soon charge major businesses for tools and features which it will provide in order to help them communicate better with their customers.

WhatsApp’s CEO Matt Idema told the Wall Street Journal, “We want to put a basic foundation in place to allow people to message businesses and for them to get the responses that they want. We do intend on charging businesses in the future.”

The app will probably permit large firms “to provide customers with useful notifications like flight times, delivery confirmations, and other updates.”

Furthermore, the company also intends to provide a free app to small or medium sized businesses. However, no accurate details about the app have yet been revealed.

The company has been testing its verified account feature for businesses for over a week so that they can be in touch with customers easily. The feature will offer businesses a green tick badge for signifying that the account is a verified business account.    

The conversations between the two parties will be completely encrypted and can be blocked. Also, the business’ name would appear as the name they registered themselves into rather than showing their number.

Tech Crunch reported that the organization wants to facilitate “someone placing an order with a local bakery or looking at new styles from a clothing store” and “shopkeepers who use WhatsApp to stay in touch with hundreds of customers from a single smartphone”, and also “offer an easier way to respond to messages.”