Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has used a trip to India to announce more transactional features for this social networks.

The boss of Facebook, The ‘Gram, WhatsApp and Threads visited Mumbai for an event dubbed “Conversations” at which WhatsApp announced a feature called “Flows” that apparently allows businesses to “offer more experiences like quickly choosing your train seat, ordering a meal or booking an appointment - all without leaving your chat.” Flows will “provide rich menus and customizable forms that support different needs.”

Indian WhatsApp users, meanwhile, will get facilities that ease payments in the chatty app by linking it to India’s Universal Payment Interface. “We’re excited to be working with partners Razorpay and PayU to make paying for something as simple as sending a message,” states WhatsApp’s spiel.

WhatsApp will also soon offer verified accounts for business users. Paying up will see users given “the ability to create a custom WhatsApp page that is easily discoverable via a web search, and multi-device with chat assignment support so multiple employees can respond to customers.”

That multi-employee access matters to orgs that accept payments in WhatsApp, and in the developing world, where WhatsApp is a more prominent digital interface than email for many organizations.

That Zuck announced this in Mumbai was clearly no accident.

Before WhatsApp verified accounts arrive, Meta will deliver them for Facebook and Instagram.

https://www.theregister.com//2023/09/21/meta_verified_accounts_for_business/