WhatsApp is finally rolling out the functionality to send and receive payments across India with the Payments platform. The company has been testing the same since 2018 but this is a wider rollout.
WhatsApp uses Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to achieve payments functionality, just like any other similar application such as Google Pay, Paytm, etc.
For it to work, you will obviously need an Indian bank account and a debit card. Next, you will have to begin the registration process by heading into settings and then clicking the ‘Payments’ option.
Now, you will have to select your bank and then WhatsApp will send a system-generated message from your phone to begin the UPI registration process. After the process is done, you can now send or receive payments on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is currently working with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, and Jio Payments Bank to facilitate UPI payments.
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With 400 million users in the country, WhatsApp will have to start with a maximum of 20 million users for which it can enable the feature as per NPCI’s instructions that the app can roll out the feature in a graded manner.
WhatsApp is now competing with the bigger players in the space such as Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay, etc. It will have to widen its reach even further because the competitors currently handle most of the UPI Transactions in India.