WhatsApp Business App Expands to iPhone

[MacRumors]

Facebook-owned WhatsApp today expanded its popular WhatsApp Business app to the iPhone, giving business owners a better way to interface with their customers using the chat app.

With WhatsApp Business, businesses are able to create profiles with contact details, website information, and options for automated greetings, replies, and away messages.

Whether it's an online sweet shop in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil that closes 60 percent of its sales via WhatsApp Business or a cinnamon roll company in Tijuana, Mexico that credits WhatsApp Business for allowing it to open a second location, small business owners all over the world are using the app to grow. We're excited to bring the WhatsApp Business app to even more small businesses and hear new stories about how it's helping them succeed.

WhatsApp Business also includes a desktop website component, so businesses can use a smartphone, tablet, or desktop machine to contact customers. Prior to now, the WhatsApp Business app has been limited to Android devices.

WhatsApp Business will be available in the App Store for free, but it looks like it's still rolling out at the current time. It will be available in Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, India, Mexico, the UK and the United States, with WhatsApp planning to bring it to additional countries in the near future. [Direct Link]

Article Link: WhatsApp Business App Expands to iPhone

 

[Apple_Robert]

Facebook-owned WhatsApp today expanded its tentacles with the WhatsApp Business app, so that it could query more personal information from businesses and customers, under the guise of better customer support. MR reached out to "hear no evil," see no evil, speak no evil; otherwise known as "the beast" or Facebook to those who are still in the Matrix for comment, and a spokesman for Facebook responded by saying it is looking forward to working with (read: manipulating) new data.

 

[abdullamac77]

The one reason I did not go with a dual-sim setup on my iPhone XS was basically I won’t be able to use WhatsApp on my second number. Now with WhatsApp Business, I can technically do it.. so 2 Whatsapp numbers on my dual sim iPhone..

Question is : is this acceptable use ? I also happen to have my second number from my job so I could make a case it’s for ‘business use’ ..

Any thoughts? Any risks down the road?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Oh how weird, I was looking into this just this week because we wanted to start using WhatsApp to communicate with our staff instead of texts but I had to park the idea because it was Android only. Great news!

 

[tridley68]

Been using what's app to communicate with my daughter while she is studying in New Zealand this semester and it works very nicely so I'm sure the business one will be great also.

 

[Allthings-I]

Finally solved the 2 numbers, 1 phone. Thank you WhatsApp....only took you like 10 years.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Given the fact that the app is a Facebook product, I won't be putting it on my phone. Facebook cannot and should not be trusted with any of your information and or personal use of this app.

 

[jeremiah256]

If Apple is going full out on services, I hope they can figure out how to bring iMessage and FaceTime to Android and Windows. So much potential to use their reputation for privacy to disrupt messaging for businesses.

 

[C DM]

If Apple is going full out on services, I hope they can figure out how to bring iMessage and FaceTime to Android and Windows. So much potential to use their reputation for privacy to disrupt messaging for businesses.

Does that bring revenue?

 

[calstanford]

Wow it’s so POPULAR I’ve never seen it, heard of it or apparently haven’t been even able to use it if I wanted to.

 

[jeremiah256]

Does that bring revenue?

Good question. With iMessage they’ve started exploring letting users initiate contact with businesses while protecting their users. Can’t see why they can’t expand on this model and add additional paid services for both consumers and businesses.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I just tried it out and, frustratingly, it still has the same issues as the regular WhatsApp app i.e. you can only use it on one device at a time and the desktop app (only one can be authorised at any time) can't *start* conversations or calls etc. So it's not really suitable for business use yet despite having the word "Business" in the app name. It looks like all they've done is create an identical app so that a single user can have two WhatsApp accounts on one phone. It may as well be called "WhatsApp (Copy)". For businesses wanting to communicate with staff, it means passing around a dedicated WhatsApp phone around the office.

 

[decafjava]

I just tried it out and, frustratingly, it still has the same issues as the regular WhatsApp app i.e. you can only use it on one device at a time and the desktop app (only one can be authorised at any time) can't *start* conversations or calls etc. So it's not really suitable for business use yet despite having the word "Business" in the app name. It looks like all they've done is create an identical app so that a single user can have two WhatsApp accounts on one phone. It may as well be called "WhatsApp (Copy)". For businesses wanting to communicate with staff, it means passing around a dedicated WhatsApp phone around the office.

It doesn't sound very useful after all, was thinking of getting this to communicate with my students separately from my private account.

P.S. Love the avatar and sig...

 

[adamjackson]

are people running their entire business on mobile phones? I can't stand to type a one sentence long text message to my mom and generally just go over to my Mac. Does WhatsApp have a desktop component these business owners can use or do they just spend all day mashing out garbage with their fingers? Just seems like this would be a real waste of time versus a traditional keyboard setup in a real web browser.

 

[C DM]

are people running their entire business on mobile phones? I can't stand to type a one sentence long text message to my mom and generally just go over to my Mac. Does WhatsApp have a desktop component these business owners can use or do they just spend all day mashing out garbage with their fingers? Just seems like this would be a real waste of time versus a traditional keyboard setup in a real web browser.

From the article:

WhatsApp Business also includes a desktop website component, so businesses can use a smartphone, tablet, or desktop machine to contact customers.

 

[adamjackson]

From the article:

thank goodness. The screenshot showed just a phone. Made me realize that this is how I'm going to be out of a job..lack of speed typing on a cell phone in 20 years.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

It doesn't sound very useful after all, was thinking of getting this to communicate with my students separately from my private account.

P.S. Love the avatar and sig...

Thanks!

To be honest, for your purposes it's probably not too bad. It's just like a second WhatsApp account but on the same phone. You'll need another phone number to authenticate it with but this could be a pay as you go sim that you use once or a virtual text number (we use TextMagic to text our employees and have a virtual mobile number through that. You can't authenticate it with WhatsApp using the verification code sent by text but if you have the virtual phone number set to forward voice calls to a different number, you can use the call feature to verify it via WhatsApp). TextMagic is an app that runs on Windows/MacOS/Android/iPhone and has been working pretty well for us so far. You could potentially have a similar set up, that sounds like a great way to have dedicated communication options for your students that are kept separate from your private line but that you can access on your private devices.

It looks like WhatsApp are slowly opening up their API to other services, which is I think what we're going to have to wait for. I've looked into Zendesk today, which is in the process of adding WhatsApp support but WhatsApp are very slow at letting them use it for more of their customers, apparently. Only 100 or so of Zendesk's customers have been allowed to use the linked service so far.

 

[thecork]

Finally. So happy I can finally use my dual sim XS Max to its full potential. I'd been using various hacks to get a 2nd whatsapp on my phone, none were ever very desirable. Now I can run my personal line through whatsapp, and my work line through whatsapp for business. Happy happy days!

 

[phoneme]

stopped using an iphone a few years ago. but on the android there has always been an "whatsapp+2, and whatsapp+3" 2 totally separate whatsapp app with different numbers. or on some phones like the mate20 pro. you can have 1 phone with 2 sets of apps. kinda like a separate partition. use 1 fingerprint for partition 1 and for partition2 use a different fingerprint.