WhatsApp digital payments service Beta launched in India

Turns out the rumours about the WhatsApp digital payments service have been true all along as the service was recently launched in India, a year after it was supposedly in the works.

Available to Indian users in Beta mode currently, many users have been reported to have seen the WhatsApp digital payments service in both, iOS and Android devices. Although not all WhatsApp users in India have received access to the Beta mode of the service.

In screenshots posted yesterday by WABetaInfo, reports that were lingering since early last year were confirmed for the very first time. India has been chosen by WhatsApp as the first country to test the service since the country is one of the largest markets for the instant messaging platform all over the world.

Also Read: WhatsApp Business App rolls out in select markets

WhatsApp for iOS 2.18.21: the payment option in WhatsApp Settings.
*Probably* the roll out has started in India ONLY.
If you're Indian and you see this option too, please let me know. ?? Also on Android! pic.twitter.com/RW1TzfsGkW

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) February 8, 2018

Owing to India’s booming digital population, along with Daily Active User numbers of more than 200 Million per by AppAnnie, and reported by The Verge, coupled with the Indian government’s increased push towards digital payments is the perfect apparatus for the WhatsApp digital payments service.

The Verge further reports that WhatsApp has “signed up a number of Indian banks to help bolster its payments service” and that WhatsApp “also makes use of the Indian government’s Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, framework, which allows for instant transfer between participating banks.”

No further reports or inputs have been offered by WhatsApp around confirmed launch dates in India or plans to test the service in any other countries.