From blocking pesky sales calls to booking metro tickets, WhatsApp is taking steps to be more than just the world’s biggest chat app. Its business platform – WhatsApp for Business – is tightening guardrails against spam, doubling down on government partnerships in India, and leaning on Meta’s AI to make interactions smarter and multilingual.
On spam, Ravi Garg, head of WhatsApp for Business in India, was straightforward. “Consent is primary to our business,” he stressed while talking to FE, adding that businesses cannot cold-call users using WhatsApp’s platform. “A business cannot call a user unless you’ve given consent. They must proactively take a consent on WhatsApp,” he said about the platform’s business calling service which it expects to roll-out soon in India.
Even after obtaining consent, brands have a window of 72 hours to reach out to the customer, and if the call goes unanswered twice, the system revokes consent, effectively blocking the business from making more calls. For business messages, a service that is live on WhatsApp right now, the platform acts fast on user feedback. “The moment a user gives a signal saying, ‘Hey, I didn’t want it, it’s a spam’, our systems kick in… we immediately take action and either block the business or send a warning,” Garg elaborated.
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He also alluded to learnings from India’s telecom operators who are reeling under the burden of marketing spam on their networks. Despite intervention from the telecom regulator, and steps to curb unwanted marketing calls, the telecom eco-system is struggling under the sheer weight of spam calls and messages leading to customer irritation and dissatisfaction.
India’s telcos, on their part, are shoring up their own defences against spam and fraud. Bharti Airtel has launched an AI-powered system that blocks malicious websites in real time, alongside its Airtel IQ Spam Protection tool which uses AI/ML and social-graph analysis to flag and suspend suspicious IDs or smishing attempts.
Vodafone Idea is preparing Smart Link Protection, a network-level filter that automatically blocks harmful links before they hit users’ phones. Jio, meanwhile, issues regular cyber-fraud advisories, warning customers against dubious links, calls or requests for personal data and urging them to report suspicious communication.
Garg is clear that WhatsApp will learn from the experience of telcos. “We didn’t want it to become a spam threat. This is more to add value, not to shift spam here,” he reiterated.
WhatsApp’s other big bet is on government partnerships to facilitate citizen outreach and governance. WhatsApp already powers metro ticketing in six cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune — letting commuters book a ticket on WhatsApp natively and board the train.
At the state level, it has signed up with Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. “We will bring every single government service on a single WhatsApp number,” Garg said. Andhra’s pilot covers utility bills, land records and even CBSE admit cards. “Seventy-five percent of students downloaded admit cards via WhatsApp,” he noted.
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Central ministries are next in line. WhatsApp is in talks with railways, health and education departments, as well as community service centres. The aim is to knit together siloed databases into a simple, familiar interface. “We are now working with a lot of government entities to actually bring governance and citizen services closer to citizens,” Garg said of the endeavour.
Meta’s AI play will deepen this shift. “We are bringing a lot of AI capabilities, specifically on small business app (where) we are introducing AI agents,” he said. These tools will allow WhatsApp to auto-respond in multiple languages, making the platform more inclusive for small businesses and everyday users. As Garg summed it up, “We are a tech platform… enabling technology for every business to leverage and grow.”
