WhatsApp held its second annual business summit in Mumbai on September 16th, unveiling a set of new features designed to deepen business-customer engagement, simplify transactions and increase discoverability. The announcement also highlighted the increasing use of the platform by the Indian government to provide citizen services on a large scale.
Payments integrated into your WhatsApp business
Small and medium-sized businesses can accept secure payments directly within the WhatsApp business app. Merchants can now generate QR codes in one tap, allowing customers to complete transactions via preferred payment methods. Meta said the feature is intended to streamline the checkout process and shorten the sales cycle.
In-app call and AI-driven support
WhatsApp deploys in-app calls and allows customers to call large companies or receive them when requested. Future updates are expected to include voice messages and video calls that include potential use cases across industries such as telehealth. Companies are also steering business AI, a tool that uses voice calls to provide automated customer support at scale.
Intensive Campaign Management
Through Meta's Advertising Manager, businesses will be able to manage their campaigns in one place across WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. The platform says integration will allow businesses to reuse creatives, budgets and workflows, while AI-driven optimization tools will improve campaign performance across Advantage+ Channel.
Status and discoverability via channels
WhatsApp is[更新]In the tab[Discoverability Feature]is expanding. This is used by 1.5 billion people around the world. Companies and creators can run ads on status, promote channels, and offer subscriptions. Early recruits include Maruti Suzuki, Air India and Flipkart. WhatsApp emphasized that these updates remain separate from your personal chat or inbox and will unfold over time.
Flexibility of small and medium-sized businesses
To give small businesses room to scale, WhatsApp now allows business apps and business platforms to be used at the same phone number. This allows businesses to process large volumes of message via APIs while continuing their daily conversations through the app.
WhatsApp's Citizen Services
Meta highlighted that 91% of online adults in India already interact with the business weekly on WhatsApp. The company is also expanding its partnership with the state government. For example, in Andhra Pradesh, the “Mana Mitra” chatbot offers over 700 multilingual services and is already used by over 4 million citizens. Odisha, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are among the other states that provide important services through the platform.
