In 2020, Facebook introduced shopping in WhatsApp, allowing people to purchase products and services from businesses on the platform and make payments for those purchases within the app. In India, you can only pay for an item on the messaging platform through UPI. When you try to make a payment using a third-party service, such as Google Pay, WhatsApp takes you to the app of the third-party payment service that you chose to complete the payment. Well, not anymore.

Meta has announced that people can now pay businesses on WhatsApp using credit and debit cards and net banking. Plus, when you pay for an item using any third-party service, the entire payment process will occur right within the app. In other words, WhatsApp will no longer redirect you to a third-party payment service. The new change makes it easier to make the payment. Meta is bringing this feature with the help of Razorpay and PayU.

Meta Verified Businesses on WhatsApp

The company is also introducing Meta Verified Businesses on WhatsApp, which makes it possible “for businesses to receive verification from Meta, which helps you know you're chatting with the right business.” The blog post states, “To become Meta Verified, businesses demonstrate their authenticity to Meta and in return receive a verified badge, enhanced account support, and impersonation protection.” Meta will start testing this feature with small businesses before introducing it to everyone.

Since last month, Meta has introduced many features in WhatsApp, including Channels and the ability to send high-quality images and videos. Soon, WhatsApp will get support for avatars in video calls. A major app redesign is also on the way. The company is also rapidly adding features to the Instagram-based Threads platform. Last month, Meta made Threads available on the web, introduced two new reposting features, and updated its Android app with support for themed icons.