WhatsApp Business application is now available to download in India. Just a couple of days ago, WhatsApp announced a new Business application, a free app for small businesses. Initially, WhatsApp said the Business app would be available in Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the U.K. and the U.S countries, and the exclusion of India from the list surprised everyone as India has the most active WhatsApp users. But finally, the app is up for download via Google Play Store and to be noted, it's available only to Android users as of now.
WhatsApp said that over 80% of small businesses in India said the instant messaging app helps them in communicating with customers and grow their business. The WhatsApp Business application is a separate standalone app, now available for free-to-download. Users already on WhatsApp can also create a WhatsApp Business account, but they can't access the standard WhatsApp anymore.
And at the time of setting up the application, WhatsApp asks the user to create a business profile (business name) and once created, the business profile cannot be changed as it warns. But the advantage of WhatsApp Business over the standard WhatsApp application is users will continue to have full control over the messages they receive, along with other controls such as the ability to block any number, including businesses, as well as report spam.
As stated, if a user creates a WhatsApp Business account, he cannot access the regular WhatsApp anymore as it says 'account is registered with another phone, kindly reverify the phone number.'
WhatsApp Business app comes with a decent set of features such as creating business profiles, messaging tools such as quick replies & greeting messages, see messaging statistics, etc. Also, a WhatsApp Business account can be used with WhatsApp Web.
Also, WhatsApp stated that other people would know that they're talking to a business because once registered WhatsApp lists as a Business account. Also, over the time, some businesses will have 'Confirmed Accounts' once it’s been confirmed that the account phone number matches the business phone number.
