WhatsApp Payments: With more than 1.5 billion active daily users, WhatsApp is undoubtedly the most popular mobile messaging platform that you can find today. Having more than 200 million daily active users in India alone, the app is considered to be the favorite chat platform for the people of the country. Now, in it’s bid to make the app more intriguing for the users, the Facebook-owned mobile messaging giant has rolled out a new payment feature called “WhatsApp Payments” in India. This makes India the first country to get the in-app payment method on WhatsApp.
The payment feature in the messaging platform is enabled by linking the app to the Unified Payment Interface or UPI, which lets the people link their accounts without sharing any other information. After getting the approval for UPI integration in July 2017, there have been many speculations on when WhatsApp pay will come for the users. Finally, it seems the feature is live for the people to use. While there has been no official confirmation from WhatsApp on when all the users will start getting the feature on the app, there are reports of some people getting the feature on their iOS and Android devices.
The WhatsApp payment feature will bring the app head-to-head with other apps, like Google’s Tez and Paytm. While Paytm and Tez have already been popular among the Indian audiences, it’s believed that WhatsApp might get an added advantage over them, since it’s already very popular among the people.
Have you received the WhatsApp payments feature on your phone? If not, don’t worry. There are some ways to get the new WhatsApp pay feature on your device. Here’s everything you need to get started:
How can you get WhatsApp payments?
As mentioned earlier, the new WhatsApp Payment feature is only rolling out for some select users in India as of now. If you want to get the feature, the best way is to join the beta testing program of WhatsApp. However, if you want to join the beta program now, you might not be able to do so since the beta program is already full. As of now, you need to check the WhatsApp version on your phone.
If the version of the app is v2.18.41 on your android device or v2.18.22 on your iOS device then you might get the feature. Open the app, go to settings and find an option that says payment. If you don’t have the payment option, there’s no other option than waiting for the feature to come to your device.
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How to use the WhatsApp payments option?
If you already have the payment option in your app, here’s how you can use it:
- Open WhatsApp.
- Head to settings.
- Select payment option.
- You’ll be asked to verify the mobile number so that it can be linked to your bank account (You need to make sure that the number you use is linked to any of the bank accounts that you use)
- Head to the chat window after you link your bank account through the mobile number.
- Select a contact whom you want to send the money to.
- Select pay option in the chat interface.
- Complete the payment with a 4 digit PIN as a password for the payment (Remember, you can only complete the payment when the other contact you’re sending money to has already linked his/her bank account to WhatsApp payments)
- After you complete the aforementioned steps, you’ll get a notification stating your transaction was successful.
How to add a bank account in the WhatsApp pay?
Before you start sending money to your contacts through WhatsApp, you need to make sure that your bank account is linked to the feature. Here’s how you can link your bank account to the feature:
- Open WhatsApp.
- Head to settings.
- Open Payments.
- You’ll find Bank Accounts, select it.
- Now click on Add New Account.
- Click on Accept and continue.
- Tap on Verify via SMS.
- Now select the bank you have your account in or the account that you want to link to the WhatsApp pay feature.
- Once you complete the process, you’ll see the UPI setup complete page.
- You can repeat the aforementioned steps to link more bank accounts to your WhatsApp.
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Insights
WhatsApp enabling the UPI and payment feature is a great boost for the digital marketing landscape of India. Although, there are many other platforms, like Hike, Paytm, Tez, and many others that already provide payment options, WhatsApp has a clear upper hand above all of them. This is because of the fact that the instant messaging platform boasts more than 200 million daily active users, which is the highest for any mobile platform in India.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What will be the advantage of WhatsApp Payments over Paytm?
The most important advantage that WhatsApp has over Paytm is the number of daily active users. WhatsApp has more than 200 million daily active users, which is way more than what Paytm has. Also, most of the people are familiar with WhatsApp more than Paytm, which makes it easier for them to find the payment feature.If you use Paytm, then you might be knowing that to use the UPI features of the app, you need to connect your bank accounts to BHIM UPI first and then integrate it with your Paytm account. This is a complex process and it might be too much for the people. On the other hand, WhatsApp has it’s own UPI features that ensure users can directly integrate their bank accounts to the app, which is much easier. This provides WhatsApp an edge over Paytm. - When will WhatsApp roll out the WhatsApp payment feature?
As discussed in the article, some of the selected users have already received the new payment feature of WhatsApp. However, WhatsApp hasn’t officially announced any date for the rollout of the feature. If you still haven’t received the payment feature in your app, all you can do is wait. Since many people have started getting the feature, the official rollout doesn’t seem to be very far. - What are the changes in the recent update of WhatsApp?
The recent WhatsApp update will make sure that your app contains the WhatsApp payment feature, which is a UPI based payment feature that lets you send and receive payments in the app itself. The best part about the feature is, you needn’t open any other page or window in the app for the payments, you can do the payments in the chat window directly without any hassles.
