WhatsApp plans to allow businesses to send voice notes to users
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta, unveiled tools designed to help businesses communicate with WhatsApp's three billion global users at a company event in Miami on Tuesday.
The WhatsApp business app was first launched in 2018. It allows businesses to pay to reach customers on the app who have agreed to receive direct messages from them. WhatsApp has also been making money from the messaging app with ads on Facebook that allow users to click to open a WhatsApp chat and have a conversation with the business.
• WhatsApp will start featuring ads. Here's what it means for you
Meta said on Tuesday that it is introducing an ability for users to call large businesses on WhatsApp or ask them to call back, with the ability to continue a conversation via messaging after the call.
Businesses will also be able to send voice notes to customers in 'the near future' and conduct video calls, according to Nikila Srinivasan, Meta's vice-president of business messaging.
Last month Meta announced it was introducing ads inside the WhatsApp messaging service for the first time.
While users will not see adverts when using WhatsApp chat, if they select the 'Updates' tab on the app, they will access business adverts. Users on the tab can select 'Channels' to follow that are run by brands and celebrities which can post to their group of followers.
Advertisers can pay to promote their WhatsApp channel within the Updates tab. The tab also includes 'Status', WhatsApp's disappearing 'Stories', which will carry ads.
Srinivasan said: 'WhatsApp is an app that is used by three billion users. It's very much a part of their everyday lives. They have not previously been able to discover a new business right on WhatsApp.
'So as a business, to me, that is an incredible value proposition. This, in fact, is something I've heard personally over time from a lot of businesses who want to be discovered on WhatsApp. That's really where people are today, and that's where they want to engage.'
Srinivasan said advertisers and WhatsApp would not have access to information from users' private messages or calls.
She said: 'Your personal messages, calls and statuses will remain end-to-end encrypted and no one, not even WhatsApp, will be able to see them.' If a user has chosen to link their Meta account to WhatsApp, they will receive 'more relevant information and ads', she said.
Meta is introducing an 'Ads Manager' which allows businesses to organise their WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns in one place. Meta said it would use artificial intelligence to deliver messages to the customers who are most likely to be interested.
Meta bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. It is under pressure to boost advertising revenues to support its aggressive investment in generative AI. The company said it was introducing business AI agents in Mexico and the Philippines before launching them globally. It is testing business AI with a group of companies in the US.
Zuckerberg said: 'In the next few years I expect that just like every business today has an email address, social media account and website, they're also going to have an AI business agent.
'You're going to be able to leverage all of the content that already exists on your Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp profiles to easily create these agents, making them a true extension of your team.'
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