WhatsApp adds rupee symbol to chats for faster access to payment capability

Says camera icon in chat composer now lets users scan any QR code to enable paying at over 20 mn stores in India

WhatsApp on Thursday said it has begun including the rupee symbol in its chat composer to make sending payments using WhatsApp easier for users in India.

WhatsApp also announced that the camera icon in the Composer now lets users scan any QR code to enable paying at more than 20 million stores in India.

The firm announced these updates at the Global Fintech Festival on Thursday.

The Facebook-owned messaging service received approval from the National Payments Corporation of India to take Unified Payments Interface (UPI) live in a phased manner, in November last year.

The payment facility through WhatsApp had been in the testing phase for over two years.

With these latest updates, Payments on WhatsApp becomes more inclusive and intuitive as users can now send money using two of the most recognisable symbols all within the WhatsApp chat composer.

The Rupee symbol roll out has begun and would soon be available to users all over India, in the coming weeks.

“We believe true inclusion is when customers don’t have to navigate their way through their phone to make a payment. An arrival point is when payments just “fits” into a customer’s intrinsic behavior. Hundreds of millions of customers send WhatsApp messages every day. Spend many minutes on WhatsApp. Take a picture and send pictures. We want to make sending money as easy and simplified as sending a message,” said Manesh Mahatme - Director Payments, WhatsApp India, at the GFF.

Being a late entrant to the UPI payments space, WhatsApp Pay has been slow to catch on with end-users. Having easier access to the payments capability could help user adoption.

“India is just at the start of its digital payments journey. More than 80 per cent of consumer spending continues to be in cash. Two-thirds of India is still rural, and will see benefits of digital innovations in the years to come. ‘Bharat’ needs simple solutions that remove the friction to learn ‘How to Pay’, an inclusive product that is simple, relatable and easy to access for rural and urban users alike and a platform like WhatsApp that they can trust, to drive adoption,” Mahatme added.