What You Should Know About WhatsApp’s Business App and WhatsApp Business API

WhatsApp's Business App and WhatsApp Business API
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WhatsApp is without a doubt one of the most popular social messaging apps in the world. Riding on its popularity, the social platform, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014, launched a business version of its app in January 2018 commonly known as WhatsApp Business. Later in the year, it launched an enterprise version known as Whatsapp Business API.

Basically, the business version of Whatsapp is aimed at helping the business community keep in touch with clients and manage their orders while its ordinary version is designed to help people socialize.

While the two versions of WhatsApp Business look alike and have lots of things in common, they also have many differences. WhatsApp for Business is free and designed for small and medium businesses (SMEs). It enables entrepreneurs to create catalogs to showcase their products and services. The SME version comes with automation tools to enhance your interaction with customers. However, it has limitations as it does not guarantee data protection nor support multiple users in different locations.

WhatsApp Business API is an enterprise version designed for large companies. It allows users to interact with customers for free on the platform for the first 24 hours. After that, users are charged a fixed fee for each message.

The enterprise version offers data protection and supports chatbots to enhance the customer experience. Unlike the SME version, WhatsApp Business API works across different devices including smartphones and computers. In addition, businesses get an official, verified company profile when they register with the app.

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Basically, WhatsApp developed an API for businesses to make it easier for companies to interact with customers. Businesses can use the API to reply to customer queries but they are not allowed to send promotional texts.

Recently, Facebook made some changes to the API version to enhance the interaction between businesses and their customers by enabling QR codes that open conversations in the app. Rather than adding phone numbers, users scan a code that opens a conversation with the business automatically. The QR codes make it easy for businesses to keep in touch with clients, therefore more businesses are likely to move from WhatsApp for Business to the enterprise version.

Previously, the biggest hurdle for businesses using WhatsApp was the inability to receive payments. In June, WhatsApp launched a payment service for its users in Brazil on a pilot basis. The payment service will run on Facebook Pay, which was launched in 2019 by Facebook. Currently the payment service allows users to send and receive money without leaving their chat windows and is free for consumers, but businesses are charged a 3.99% processing fee to receive payment.

With so much going for WhatsApp, the future looks bright for its private and business versions.

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