Good news for small businesses: WhatsApp Business now available in India

After its initial rollout in five countries, WhatsApp Business is now available in India. The app is live on Google Play Store. WhatsApp Business is a free-to-download Android app for small businesses that lets business to display information such as email, description or store addresses including the website.

Facebook-owned messaging app business service offers a tool for small business enterprises (SME) to let them communicate to clients without any hassles and grow their business.

The service will make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to connect with customers, and more convenient for its users to chat with businesses.

WhatsApp Business also has options to send greetings messages to new customers and set away messages when the companies are busy.

It is built on top of WhatsApp Messenger and includes all the features that user rely on, such as the ability to send multimedia, free calls, free international messaging, group chat, offline messages, and much more, says the messaging app.

How to register for WhatsApp Business

If you want to register yourself as a user of WhatsApp Business. First, you have to provide a mobile number. In case you are already a Whatsapp user and don't have an alternative number then your personal profile will be transferred to a business profile, along with all your contacts.

Once you verify your phone number via an OTP. You will be asked to set up your business name. After you are done with the process, you will be taken to the app’s homepage, which is similar to the regular app. WhatsApp Business also allows to create your business profile where you can add your business details.

All conversations are end-to-end encrypted, there is two-step verification for additional security. Users can change the phone number. It also allows Google Drive to back and restore your chat history, just like the regular app.

WhatsApp user base in India

With 200 million user base, India is the largest market for the messaging app. It is also slated to integrate Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for enabling payment for various services through the app. Going forward, it would be interesting to see how WhatsApp will integrate UPI layer with tools it’s building for businesses.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp is also gearing to launch its UPI-enabled payment service by next month. The payment platform is already in beta stage and expected to go live for consumers by the end of February.

In September, the messaging app launched a pilot in association with companies such as BookMyShow, Netflix, and MakeMyTrip. The new business app is already available in Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the UK, and the US. WhatsApp has over 1.3 billion users worldwide.

Besides India, WhatsApp is also planning to launch its business app for Android in South Africa.