Messaging's huge WhatsApp doubles its role as India's business backbone. At the second annual business summit in Mumbai, the platform announced numerous updates designed to help businesses from Kirana stores to airlines improve sales, streamline support and connect with consumers in a more intuitive way.
from Integrated payments and in-app calls to AI-driven customer support and status adsnew features underline WhatsApp's evolution from personal messaging apps to a full-fledged commercial and services ecosystem.
Payment within WhatsApp Business
Small businesses will be able to share QR codes with taps and accept direct payments within WhatsApp, reducing friction due to rapid sales closures. This secure, in-app payment option is especially useful for moms and pop shops looking to digitize transactions without investing in heavy tech infrastructure.
Call and AI-driven support
Large businesses can make calls directly from customers within the app, and can handle complex queries that can lack messaging. Soon, even audio notebooks and video calls are the boon of telehealth, travel, or financial services, which are part of our support toolkit. In addition to this, Business AI The solution enables scaled conversation support through voice calls.
Status and Intensive Campaign Advertising
Meta is also tightening the integration of its entire ecosystem. Companies can now run across coordinated campaigns Through WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Ads Managerusing one creative and shared budget optimized by Meta's AI.
With WhatsApp itself, [更新]tabwith 1.5 billion people visiting every day, and soon there will be status ads, promotional channels and even channel subscriptions. Brands like Marti Suzuki, Air India, Flipkart, Geo Hot Star It's one of the early adopters.
“We are pleased to announce that Bhuvan Dheer, executive director of marketing at MSIL,” said:
“We use WhatsApp extensively to drive business growth. WhatsApp status ads can even help drive product and service discovery and sales.”
added Sunil Suresh, Chief Marketing Officer of Air India.
“WhatsApp's new ads are consistent with the vision of digital-first transformation, and could create seamless pathways for customer engagement, booking and support.
Small businesses have gained flexibility
Another important update is that small businesses can use both WhatsApp Business Apps and WhatsApp Business Platform Same number at the same time. This means you can rely on a ton of query automation and APIs while performing daily chats and group interactions through your app.
Large-scale citizen services
Beyond commercial transactions, WhatsApp solidifies its role in governance. According to Kantar 2025 Report91% of online adults in India already chat with businesses every week. This app is being deployed by the government. States such as Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu use official chatbots to provide citizen services.
Andhra Pradesh Government “Mana Mitra” chatbot It already provides access to over 700 services in multiple languages, and is used by 4 million citizens.
The whole picture
Arun Srinivas, managing director and country head of Metanin, summed it up.
“Every day, businesses of all sizes are leveraging WhatsApp to deliver faster, more impactful customer experiences. With the latest tools and features, we are confident that businesses will unlock stronger ROIs, build deeper personal connections with customers and succeed.”
He added that beyond business, the simplicity of WhatsApp has become an essential part of everyday life, from purchasing tickets to paying utility bills.
“We are excited that more and more state governments across India are partnering with us to unlock access to important public services for people.”
