Zuckerberg unveils new features to help people find, message & buy on WhatsApp

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Thursday announced new features to offer users a convenient way to quickly get assistance from the millions of small businesses and tens of thousands of brands already on WhatsApp.

At the first-ever WhatsApp Business Summit in Brazil, Mark Zuckerberg shared an update on what the company is building to help people find, message and buy something from a business on WhatsApp.

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"Starting today, people can search for a brand or a small business right on WhatsApp, either by browsing a list of categories or by typing the name," said Zuckerberg.

This will save people from having to find phone numbers off websites or type a number into their contacts.

You can easily start a chat with a business, and if you want to shop and buy something from them you should be able to do it right there in the chat too.

"A number of partners are actively testing payments with us so we can bring this capability to more people and businesses in Brazil very soon," Zuckerberg informed.

To begin with, the company is bringing the ability to search for a business to Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and the UK. In Brazil, search will help people find small businesses as well.

"If you run a business in Brazil, that means people will be able to find you, contact you and purchase from you all in one WhatsApp chat, and we're working to bring this experience to more countries in the coming months too," said the Meta CEO.

According to the company, some of the recent businesses that have joined WhatsApp are helping people open a bank account, purchase their metro ticket and order groceries.

The company said in a blog post that it wants people to be able to make a secure payment right from a chat with their credit or debit card.

"We recently launched this experience in India and we're excited to now be testing this in Brazil with multiple payment partners," said WhatsApp.

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