WhatsApp Pay will be officially launching in many countries soon, but in the meantime you can make payments on the messaging platform provided you’re in India.
WhatsApp will be using the country’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) framework to facilitate money transfer. WhatsApp Pay was launched in February 2018 in India as part of a trial run. Payments through WhatsApp were introduced to a million users under a partnership with ICICI Bank.
Since it is based on UPI, the money will go straight to your bank account, eliminating the need of mobile wallets and other similar financial instruments.
Requirements
First, make sure you are running the latest version of the app – as of filing this report, that’s v2.18.41 on Android and iPhone v2.18.22. Open any WhatsApp chat and see if you see the new Payments sub-head under Settings.
How to add bank accounts for WhatsApp Payments
Here’s how you can add your bank account to WhatsApp and get started with the payments feature:
- Go to Settings -> Payments inside WhatsApp.
- In the Bank Accounts sub-head, select the Add New Account option.
- Tap Accept and Continue if you agree with the terms.
- Tap the Verify via SMS and follow the prompts to send an SMS to start the linking process.
- On the next screen, select the bank whose account you want to add.
- If you have an account (or multiple accounts) linked with the number that you just sent the SMS from, you will be presented with your account (or accounts) from that bank.
- If everything goes smoothly, you will see the UPI Setup Complete screen.
You can repeat these steps to add multiple bank accounts to WhatsApp. If you have multiple accounts added, you can designate one of them as the primary account (by default the account you added first).
You can also send money to individual group members in a group chat, provided they have enabled the Payment option. Moreover, you cannot pay money to verified business accounts.
Here’s how to send make payments via WhatsApp Pay
- Open the chat of the WhatsApp contact to whom you want to send money.
- On Android, tap the Attach button. If you are on iPhone, select the Plus button.
- To Send money, just tap on Payment, and enter the amount you want to send. You can also add a note to the message if you want.
- To authorise the payment, just enter the UPI PIN of the bank account from which you are trying to send money.
- Once the money is sent, the amount (and the text note, if any) will show as a message as part of the conversation.
You should now see the payment method listed in the payments page.