After two years of waiting, WhatsApp payment service has received approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to go live on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) with over 160 supported banks.
Who will be able to send money using WhatsApp?
Over 400 million WhatsApp users in India can now securely send money to friends and family, and payments feature is now available for iPhone and Android users who are on the latest version of the app.
Payments are available now in 10 Indian regional language versions of WhatsApp.
What do you need to use WhatsApp Pay?
All you need is a debit card with a bank that supports UPI. You can find the update in the latest version of WhatsApp.
How to use it?
In order to use WhatsApp Pay, you must have the WhatsApp application on your phone.
To enable the payment service, a user must initiate a payment to a contact.
Steps to set up the payment option
Open WhatsApp
Tap on three vertical dots on the top right corner
Click on 'Payments'
Select Add new payment method
Select Accept and continue to get started
Choose your bank from the list
You'll now need to verify your phone number
Make sure that the WhatsApp number you're using is the same one registered with your bank account
Verify your bank account via SMS
Click allow to let WhatsApp verify that the SIM card is the one registered with your account
Allow again for WhatsApp to send texts to authenticate your account
WhatsApp will now verify with your bank and pull up all accounts registered with your number
Select the one you'd like to use to finish setting up payments
Click on 'Done' to finish setting up WhatsApp Pay
You will see the payment method listed in the payments page
Steps to send and receive money:
Select the contact you want to send money to
In the conversation window, select the clip icon
Choose Payment
Select the amount you'd like to send
Enter your UPI PIN
You'll see a confirmation message showing up directly in the conversation window once the transaction is done
WhatsApp began testing payments feature way back in 2018 in India but could not launch the feature owing to regulatory roadblocks and data compliance issues.
"We're delighted to be working with five leading banks in India: ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, the State Bank of India, and Jio Payments Bank. People can send money on WhatsApp to anyone using a UPI supported app," the company informed.
WhatsApp said the payments feature is designed with a strong set of security and privacy principles, including entering a personal UPI PIN for each payment.
The move comes after NPCI in August had informed the Reserve Bank of India that WhatsApp had met data localisation requirements.
Brazil became the first country to roll out WhatsApp payment service in June.
In India, the WhatsApp payment service will compete against other major players like Paytm, Google Pay and PhonePe, among others.
(With inputs from IANS)
