WhatsApp has been expected to introduce a Premium subscription for the Business app for a while now and at Meta’s first Conversations event, the messaging platform has officially got hold of it. In addition, a host of new features have made their way to the WhatsApp Business app to make things easier for all kinds of businesses. Here’s a look at all you need to know.
WhatsApp Business Premium and More Updates
The Premium service is a subscription model for businesses to get access to a few exclusive features by paying a fee. The new features coming under this include the ability to use a Business account on up to 10 devices for the brand to extend its reach further. This feature is said to be in the works, as spotted by a previous WABetaInfo report. This comes in addition to the existing multi-device feature that allows for adding up to 4 devices.
This also includes the ability to create customized WhatsApp click-to-chat links for businesses to attract more customers. Again, this was also spotted by WABetaInfo recently. The custom domain names will be preceded by “wa.me/” and can be changed every 90 days. Businesses can come with links and check if they are available to use.
WhatsApp also has a new Cloud API, which will provide free and secure cloud hosting services to all businesses for businesses and developers to access the WhatsApp features with ease. WhatsApp says that the new API will help them “build directly on top of WhatsApp to customize their experience and increase their response time for their customers.“
Meta has also introduced recurring notifications on Facebook Messenger. With this, the business accounts can re-engage people in the messaging thread and send them personalized messages. Plus, they can choose the type of content to send. This functionality will also reach Instagram this fall.
While recurring notification will initially be a free feature, it will eventually become a part of the Premium subscription model. WhatsApp also charges businesses for sending messages via the WhatsApp Business API. All these new features join the existing Business Suite, click-to-message paid ads, and more.
WhatsApp further reveals that over one billion people “message with a business each week” across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram DM. So, what do think about these new WhatsApp Business features? Let us know in the comments below.
