If you’d like to be able to add a bit more emphasis to some of your messages in WhatsApp, here are some fast and easy manual ways to add bold, italic, or strikethrough.
– To make word or phrase bold, put asterisks either side of the word or phrase e.g., *text*
– To put a word or phrase in italics, put an underscore either side of the word or phrase e.g., _text_
– To strikethrough a word, put a tilde either side e.g., ~text~.
WhatsApp has given a progress update on new business-focused features that can embed the entire shopping experience directly into the WhatsApp chat.
Find A Business – Browse Businesses By Category
WhatsApp says that it is launching a new ‘Business Search’ feature. This allows users to browse businesses by category, or search by the business name. WhatsApp says that using this feature within the app can “save people from having to find phone numbers off websites or type a number into their contacts.”
Also, WhatsApp says an added privacy bonus of this feature is that whatever users search for within business search is processed in a way that means it can’t be linked back to their account.
Make Secure Payments Within Chats
Although WhatsApp stressed in its progress update that its “first principle remains keeping people in control of their conversations”, i.e. its message service, its new secure checkout feature allows users to make a secure payment right from a chat with their credit or debit card. Recently launched in India and being tested in Brazil with “multiple payment partners,” WhatsApp describes the seamless checkout within its App as “a game-changer for people and businesses looking to buy and sell on WhatsApp without having to go to a website, open another app or pay in person.”
Many Business Focused Features Being Introduced
These latest features follow WhatsApp’s launch of ‘Communities’ which was designed to capitalise on the fact that many non-profit organisations, as well as businesses now use WhatsApp, and build more engagement and loyalty among these valuable segments. Meta’s WhatsApp has been introducing many features over the last few years designed to attract more business users an monetise the app. These include, for example, voice and video calling, the ability to share files within WhatsApp up to 2GB in size, improvements to voice messaging, Linked Device (WhatsApp Web) and more. WhatsApp already has ‘WhatsApp Business,’ launched in January 2018 in the UK.
Staying Within The App
The new WhatsApp features also highlight how many apps, WhatsApp included and recently Zoom (with its Mail and Calendar Clients and Services) are trying broaden the range of services that can be accessed within their apps so users (especially business users) don’t have to leave the app. Eventually, many apps are looking to become ‘super apps’ that provide a diverse range of service and shopping opportunities in one app.
Trouble At Meta Mill
Recently however, following a slump in advertising revenue from Facebook and Instagram, alongside two poor financial results from investor confusion about and huge investment in the slow-burning Metaverse concept, there’s trouble for Meta. WhatsApp’s owner Meta recently announced that it was laying off a massive 13 per cent of its workforce globally in re-structuring. The pressure, therefore, is now even more on WhatsApp to bring in more revenue and attract more business customers.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
With Meta’s recent poor financial performance, declining advertising revenue from its core services, plus competition from other apps targeting the business market WhatsApp needs to keep adding more features (as it has been doing for some time) and broadening these features to attract and bring in more revenue from business customers.
Features like business search and secure checkouts within chats may help both businesses and users as well as a way to keep users within the app and move it more towards being a potential complete and secure service. This will help WhatsApp compete in an environment where individual apps are trying to gain share by expanding their range of services to become one-stop shops and super apps.
Meta’s WhatsApp has announced the global rollout of it ‘Communities’ feature along with in-chat polls, 32-person video calling, and groups with up to 1024 users.
Communities
The Communities feature, for iOS and Android, allows users to connect multiple groups, e.g. schools, local clubs, non-profit organisations, and businesses together under one umbrella to organise group conversations on WhatsApp. In Communities, users can switch between different available groups to get information, plus admins can send important updates to everyone in the Community.
More Secure Than The Alternatives?
The Communities feature is likely to take over from Groups, and offers an alternative to platforms like Discord, Slack, and Meta’s own Messenger, with the extra selling point of “a level of privacy and security not found anywhere else”. For example, WhatsApp says about Communities: “The alternatives available today require trusting apps or software companies with a copy of their messages – and we think they deserve the higher level of security provided by end-to-end encryption.”
In-Chat polls
Another new feature also being launched in WhatsApp soon is in-chat polls. Tested back in April, and similar to voting polls features on other platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, in-chat polls can be used in Groups and Communities to make it easier for group members to make democratic decisions or to gather opinions of group members on specific subjects.
32 Person Video Calling & Groups With Up To 1024 users
WhatsApp has also announced the rollout of 32-person video calling (more than is allowed on a Discord or Slack video call), and groups with up to 1024 users which it says can be used in any group but will be particularly helpful for Communities.
Loads Of New Features Lately
Meta’s WhatsApp has been piling-on the new features this year to help it compete more effectively in an environment where, following the pandemic, online groups and collaborative remote working has become the norm for many. New features introduced this year include:
– Privacy features like Leave Groups Silently, Choose Who Can See When You’re Online, and Screenshot Blocking For View Once Messages.
– Emojis and the ability to share files within WhatsApp up to 2GB in size.
– Improvements to voice messaging, including Out of Chat Playback, Pause/Resume Recording, Waveform Visualization, Draft Preview, Remember Playback, and Fast Playback on Forwarded Messages.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The new ‘Communities’ feature is about Meta capitalising on the fact that many non-profit organisations, as well as businesses now use WhatsApp, and that building in more engagement and loyalty among these valuable segments could also deliver competitive advantage and benefits. This follows attempts dating back to 2018 to attract more small businesses (of which there is a large number) with WhatsApp Business followed by its testing of a multi-device capability to appeal to multi-device owning (business) users. Adding features to expand the capabilities of Communities, i.e. in-chat polls, 32-person video calling and groups with up to 1024 users enable WhatsApp to both compete effectively with a raft of its rivals (Slack, Discord, Twitter, Instagram), create a successor Groups, establish WhatsApp as a leading group comms app, and fully take advantage of the post-pandemic demand for effective online group chat and information platforms.
In this article, we look at the features, pros and cons of the business-focused version of WhatsApp.
Launched in 2018
The business-focused Android version of ‘WhatsApp Business’ was launched in January 2018 in the UK, and the iOS version was launched in early 2019. Available for free, but with pricing per message and a cost for the API, the app is specifically aimed at the needs of small businesses, which account for 99.3% of all private sector businesses in the UK (FSB).
Connect Small Businesses With Their Customers
At the time of its launch, Facebook-owned WhatsApp said that it wanted people to use WhatsApp to connect with small businesses, and that the new ‘WhatsApp Business’ would make it easier for companies to connect with customers and offer a more convenient way for the 1.3 billion WhatsApp users to chat with businesses. WhatsApp describes it as “a simple tool for businesses to talk to their customers.”
Why It Was Launched
Since Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $22 billion, the company had been looking for ways to monetise the app which, although was developed for use by individuals, was being widely used by people in business, and in large and small organisations as a collaboration tool for staff.
WhatsApp also wanted to gain a march on rivals in what had become a battle for the attention of consumers by messaging apps including Apple’s iMessage, Facebook’s Messenger, Kik, Slack for business, and others.
What Can It Do?
Some of the key features and benefits of WhatsApp Business include:
Business-Focused Cloud API For WhatsApp Business Too
Back in May, Meta’s WhatsApp also announced that it was opening WhatsApp to all businesses and developers with a new cloud-based API service. WhatsApp Cloud API, on the WhatsApp Business Platform, offers businesses secure cloud hosting services provided by Meta and the new API (application programming interface) allows apps to communicate with each other. This means that businesses can, for example, build-in a customised customer service chat feature to their website that uses a customised version of WhatsApp (built directly on top of WhatsApp), accessible via a dashboard, for the conversation. Previously, businesses had been set up on the non-cloud version, including Vodafone, BMW, and KLM.
Concerns And Disadvantages of WhatsApp Business
Some of the concerns and disadvantages around WhatsApp Business include:
– Secuity and privacy concerns. For, example, Kaspersky recently reported uncovering malicious versions of a WhatsApp messenger mod known as YoWhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus that were being used to spread the Triada mobile Trojan and steal WhatsApp access keys.
– Also, back in 2020, a Business Insider Report highlighted how third-party apps may be exposing some data and details of the activity of WhatsApp users. Concerns have also been expressed by some that WhatsApp Business automatically reads all a user’s saved contacts and phone numbers that are stored.
– Concerns that WhatsApp Business lacks the advanced sales and service functions of WhatsApp API.
– Limitations of employee accounts and devices. For example, one account can be linked to five devices, but the devices are all linked to the same number. This could create confusion in communications, i.e. who has answered which customer question.
Other Business-Focused Services
Other business-focused services recently announced by Meta also include:
– A ‘Recurring Notifications’ service (available on Messenger and also available for businesses on Instagram by autumn) to help businesses re-engage people in the right messaging thread, choose the topics that people can opt-in to, and how often customers can hear from the business.
– Communities on WhatsApp which will enable users to bring together separate groups (e.g., schools, local clubs, and non-profit organisations, and businesses) under one umbrella with a structure.
– Reactions – a set of six different emojis (a red heart, thumbs up, laughter, a sad face, a surprised face/wow, and a “thanks” emoji) that can be used in busy group chats, e.g., as part of ‘Communities’.
– Improved voice messaging services on WhatsApp.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Many businesspeople and their customers use WhatsApp on a regular basis anyway – WhatsApp is the most used chat app in the UK – and are already familiar with its functions and benefits. Many tech and business commentators are also saying that 1:1 messaging is the future of personalised commerce and post-purchase customer service. It makes sense, therefore, that Meta would make the step to a business version to provide a way to monetise the app and then to expand the business aspects of the app to fight powerful post-pandemic competitors and create new sources of revenue other than advertising.
Many smaller business users may already be happy using the free existing version and are aware of its benefits, i.e., wide user-base, the speed and versatility of communications and security (end-to-end encryption). However, Meta has been expanding its businesses services, and many businesses, 4 years down the line since its introduction, may still not be aware of the extra value they could get from the features of WhatsApp Business. There are many possible applications for WhatsApp Business, such as KLM’s use of the app for flight confirmations and updates, brands using the app on competitions, and WhatsApp Business could work well in industries such as hospitality. WhatsApp Business could also provide a perfect way to enable customers to book a hotel room, get customer support, and even access an on-site member of staff such as a concierge. Retail brands could use the app for many purposes in addition to just shipping confirmations, and WhatsApp is well positioned enough, and widely used enough to provide opportunities for businesses worldwide to improve their communication and relationship marketing.
More recently, Meta has tried to use WhatsApp Cloud API as something to tempt more businesses into taking the plunge with WhatsApp Business. Cloud API, for example, available through WhatsApp Business can offer businesses a fast and uncomplicated way to set up a secure and scalable direct messaging channel with customers that could boost sales in a changing environment where fast messaging responses are now expected by customers. WhatsApp Business, therefore, is still something that many smaller businesses may not have had a serious look at yet but aspects like Cloud API and other features that Meta will no doubt add may start tempting more businesses to look at how competitors are benefitting from its features, and how they could add value to their own business.
Kaspersky has warned users about the dangers of malicious WhatsApp knockoff apps YoWhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus. Although both appear to offer the same functionalities as the real WhatsApp, they are reported to be able to download the Triada Trojan to smartphones, and steal legitimate WhatsApp’s access keys, thereby giving attackers access to the user’s real WhatsApp account.
The advice is not to visit suspicious websites, and not to use unofficial clients for messaging apps, or to download hacked versions of programs via torrents.
Following a move by the Iranian government to restrict access to Meta’s WhatsApp, the company has said in a tweet that it “will do anything” within its technical ability to keep its service up and running for Iranian users.
What Happened?
After protests which followed the death of a woman, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, in police custody in Tehran, residents and internet watchdog NetBlocks reported that Iran had curbed access to two of the last remaining social networks in the country, Meta ‘s Instagram and WhatsApp.
NetBlocks , the watchdog organisation, founded in 2017, that monitors cybersecurity and the governance of the internet reported that following the protests there had been a “nation-scale loss of connectivity” on Iran’s main mobile telephone provider and another company’s network. Reports also indicate that:
– WhatsApp’s servers have been disrupted on multiple internet providers.
– Instagram’s services were blocked.
– Internet services were disrupted in Tehran (texts could be sent but not pictures), and more severely disrupted in parts of Kurdistan province in west Iran.
WhatsApp Says…
WhatsApp tweeted about the disruption to its service saying: “We exist to connect the world privately. We stand with the rights of people to access private messaging. We are not blocking Iranian numbers. We are working to keep our Iranian friends connected and will do anything within our technical capacity to keep our service up and running.”
Iran Says…
There were conflicting messages between Iran’s minister of communications Issa Zarepour, who was first quoted as saying that restrictions to the internet could be applied “for security reasons.” This, however, was corrected by Iran’ ISNA news agency which used a different quote with no mention of security to say that there had been some temporary restrictions in some places, which had been resolved.
Happened Before
It’s not the first time that Internet restrictions have followed protests in Iran. For example, in 2019, following protests, the Internet in Iran was shut down for about a week.
In Many Countries
As shown on the NetBlocks website, it is often the case that in many countries, where there are anti-government protest or conflict, internet services and access to communications apps are restricted. For example, TikTok is reported to be restricted in Azerbaijan and Armenia on multiple internet providers amid clashes between the two countries over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and YouTube was recently disrupted on multiple internet providers in Pakistan as former Prime Minister Imran Khan attempted to make a live broadcast to the public (despite a ban).
WhatsApp is banned / blocked in many countries around the world including Dubai and The UAE, China, North Korea, Qatar, Turkey, and Syria.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
In the UK and other democracies, citizens are used to certain freedoms, especially where the Internet and communications apps are concerned and any attempt to restrict open communication is met with scrutiny by rights organisations and media outlets, e.g. Amber Rudd’s push to get backdoor access to WhatsApp following the London terrorist attacks in 2017. In many other countries, however, restricting Internet access (thereby restricting access to information which could be used against governments) is seen as a legitimate response by certain governments and regimes. In addition to effects on the freedom of citizens, disruptions to Internet services affect all users, including businesses. Reports from Russia (which has tested its own complete switch-off from the wider Internet), a huge country which is dependent on online services, indicate that since its invasion of Ukraine, .ru domains have only been online intermittently, and Russians have discovered that it is now difficult to pay for private networking apps since Visa and Mastercard have pulled out. The Internet and the Web have transformed the sharing of information, global trade, and business, but inequalities exist around the world in terms of how comfortable governments are with the free flow of information, and how prepared they are to stifle that flow.
New privacy features being rolled out this month mean that WhatsApp users can now leave group chats silently.
Three New Privacy Features
WhatsApp has announced the introduction of three new privacy features: Leave Groups Silently, Choose Who Can See When You’re Online, and Screenshot Blocking For View Once Messages.
Privacy
WhatsApp is keen to remind users that these features are in a long line of steps designed to protect their privacy, which have recently included disappearing messages that self-destruct, end-to-end encrypted backups when users want to save their chat history, 2-step verification, and the ability to block and report unwanted chats.
Snapchat
On the same day as WhatsApp’s new privacy features were announced, competitor Snapchat announced its new ‘Family Centre’ child safety tool which allows parents to see their children’s friend list and who is communicating with them. Snapchat’s new tool to provide “insights” into teen users’ lives (rather than oversight of them) requires the teen’s account to agree to link up with an account belonging to someone over 25.
Back in May, WhatsApp introduced emojis and the ability to share files within WhatsApp up to 2GB as part of a push by Facebook/Meta to stay at the top of the free encrypted messaging app market and compete with rivals like Snapchat. For example, in January, Snapchat announced a major update (for iOS) which included improved calling, ‘Chat Replies,’ Bitmoji Reactions (to allow for more expression), and Poll Stickers to enable emoji-powered polls in Snaps and Stories to survey friends. Meta also wants to consolidate and leverage the power of its other popular apps by integrating and making Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram interoperable.
Online Safety Bill and WhatsApp
With WhatsApp being one of the end-to-end encrypted apps that’s been the target of UK government pressure for ‘back doors’ for monitoring messages to be introduced, along with the Online Safety Bill threatening to weaken encryption, WhatsApp’s made it clear that it won’t be pressured. For example, in recent a BBC interview, WhatsApp’s CEO, Will Cathcart, said that the platform’s security wouldn’t be weakened on government orders, and these new privacy features are one of the many that WhatsApp has been letting users know that the privacy of the app is non-negotiable in a way that benefits users.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
With WhatsApp being Meta-owned, plus being under pressure by the government to weaken encryption, as well as having to compete with Snapchat, it’s no surprise that its new features are privacy-based and a way of emphasising to users that it’s not going to compromise on privacy and security. For example, WhatsApp used the same announcement to say, “we’re also kicking off a campaign to educate people about the new features and our continued commitment to protecting your private conversations on WhatsApp.” That said, features such as being able to ‘silently’ leave a group are going to make using WhatsApp a more comfortable user experience, which is increasingly important to WhatsApp as it tries to continue wooing business users.
With so many of us using WhatsApp for important business matters, it makes sense to backup chats either on Google Drive or iCloud Drive. Here’s how:
To make a Google Drive backup:
– Open WhatsApp and Tap More options (the three dots).
– Select Settings > Chats > Chat backup > Back up to Google Drive.
– Select a backup frequency other than ‘Never.’
– Select the Google account you’d like to back up your chat history to.
– Tap ‘Back up over’ to choose the network you want to use for backups.
– To turn on end-to-end encryption for your Google Drive backup select > Settings > Chats > Chat backup > End-to-end encrypted backup.
– Tap ‘TURN ON’ and create a password or use a 64-digit encryption key instead.
– Tap ‘Create ‘to create your end-to-end encrypted backup.
To make an iCloud Drive backup:
– Make sure you’re signed in with the Apple ID and iCloud Drive is turned on.
– For a manual back up. Go to WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Chat Backup > Back Up Now.
– For an automatic backup, you can enable automatic, scheduled backups by tapping ‘Auto Backup’ and choosing your backup frequency.
If you’re meeting up with someone, or you want a friend to know exactly where you are (which can be a useful safety feature) WhatsApp has a fast and easy way to share your location with someone at the tap of a button. Here’s how to use it:
– Tap on the + sign or the paperclip next to the message box.
– Tap ‘location’.
– Agree to continue and tap ‘Share Live Location’.
– WhatsApp will share your exact location with the other person.
If you need to hold a group, you’ll be pleased to know that WhatsApp allows users to make a group voice call for up to 32 participants for free! Here’s how:
– Open the group chat you want to voice call.
– Tap ‘Voice call’ and confirm your decision. The first seven people who answer can join the call, and only group members can participate.
– Find the contacts you want to add to the call, then tap ‘Voice call’.
To make a group voice call from the ‘CALLS’ tab:
– Open WhatsApp and tap the ‘CALLS’ tab.
– Tap ‘New call > New group call’.
– Find the contacts you want to add to the call, then tap ‘Voice call’.
To make a group voice call from an individual chat:
– Open the individual chat with one of the contacts you want to voice call.
– Tap ‘Voice call’.
– When the contact accepts the call, tap ‘Open > Add participant’.
– Look up the next contact you want to add to the call and tap ‘ADD’.
– Tap Add participant to add more contacts.
