WhatsApp Payments feature based on Unified Payments Interface or UPI, came to life earlier this week, however, upon exploring the feature, some complications have surfaced. The WhatsApp Payments feature which is live in the beta version of the messaging app for a handful of users will be limited to ‘person to person’. This means that people can make payments via WhatsApp to each other but, merchants who have WhatsApp business app or are registered as Business users on WhatsApp will not be able to use this feature for now, according to a report by The Indian Express. The report also highlighted that WhatsApp has declined to make any comments on a timeline about this payments feature and when will it be live, for the users.
As reported earlier, it was GizmoTimes who managed to grab hold of the WhatsApp update with the integration of UPI. The version of WhatsApp was beta v2.18.41. In a new update, that is WhatsApp beta v2.18.44, this feature was nowhere to be seen. As per the leaked screenshot of the WhatsApp’s Payments feature, the integration will replace the camera widget in the app that is shown when you tap open on the attachment icon.
The same news about the WhatsApp Payments with UPI integration update was also confirmed by Fonearena as well.
This feature, when it’ll go live, will be a boon for many. As per the update, feature shows the list of banks and the bank accounts that are linked with this feature. This new feature was seen in both beta versions of iOS and Android. This upcoming feature of WhatsApp will be a peer-to-peer based feature and it is likely to support most of the banks on the UPI platform. As for the UPI, it is a platform which allows users to transfer from the bank account itself. UPI requires bank account connected with user’s mobile number, a UPI pin is needed and authorisation PIN is needed to carry out transactions.
