As we said, it will be an independent app that we will find in the Google Play Store – for Android devices – and will be available in the same way in the App Store – for iOS, iPhones. In this way, companies – or their employees – will have easier the differentiation of profiles between the staff and the business account. A simpler and safer way to manage conversations. However, within WhatsApp Business, there will also be substantial differences for small businesses and the profiles of larger companies.
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) October 6, 2017 What’s New in the WhatsApp Business App An important development: there will be fixed telephone support. That is, now WhatsApp Business will allow us to set up a business profile using a landline number, rather than a mobile phone number. In this way, companies with the fixed line will not require the configuration of the profile with a personal number, but with the own telephone number of the office, for example. However, in many other aspects, we find that the app is the same. The design has not changed, at least for the moment, and features like ‘camera, chats, states and calls’ are maintained. That is the same sections. What’s new are two other sections in ‘Settings’: Business Settings and Statistics. In the second of these two sections, although for the moment only the messages sent, received and read can be controlled, there will soon be more usage and interaction statistics. Also in the settings, but in another section, you can configure a profile image, company name and ‘verification’. This is what is part of the company profile, similar to the one we currently have.
There are some other features specific and unique that you can already see in the beta of WhatsApp Business. They are not all yet available because Mark Zuckerberg’s signature is only in an internal test of the application with few associated with the ‘test’ program. But at this point, we have been able to already prove exclusive features of WhatsApp Business as ‘absent state’ messages. Basically, these are automatic messages that can be configured in detail, and serve to alert customers or contacts that can not be answered to their requests because there is no one, at that time, available for it. This type of automatic messages can be configured for every Saturday and Sunday, for example, or simply activate and deactivate manually whenever we want. At the moment, WhatsApp Business is available in the Google Play Store on this link, but ‘invisible’. This means that although the application is registered in the official Google Play store for Android, and can be downloaded, it is only visible to subscribers to the beta program. And at the moment very few have been able to enter, but WhatsApp is about to launch the application for more users. So, what do you think about this? Simply share your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
