Meta, owner of the popular messaging service WhatsApp, recently announced that it is rolling out the Meta Verified feature for WhatsApp Business users in India, Indonesia, Brazil and Colombia. The announcement was made at Conversations, Meta’s annual business messaging event, on Thursday, June 6 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Meta Verified subscription service, much like in Facebook and Instagram, provides a verified badge to the user along with impersonation protection, if they share their business details with the company. This has been designed to enhance credibility and authenticity of a business, which will further increase engagement and brand growth of the business.
The Meta Verified subscription feature for WhatsApp Business also comes with other new perks, such as linking up to four devices from the same account, a dedicated WhatsApp channel for marketing purposes, and a custom web page with business details which can be shared with customers and vendors. The verified badge will also appear on the WhatsApp channels and custom WhatsApp pages of the concerned business accounts.
Regarding this latest update, an official statement from Meta said, “When you see a Meta Verified badge, this means a business has registered their information with Meta. Businesses using Meta Verified receive enhanced account support (including impersonation protection) and can use WhatsApp across multiple devices for their employees.”
Also, Meta is rolling out a one-tap call support feature that will allow customers to directly get in touch with larger businesses for better and effective communication.
“If you have a complicated travel request or want to discuss opening a new account with your bank, a quick call might be the best way to get help. We just started testing this feature and will expand it to more businesses in the coming months,” Meta said in a statement.
The subscription-based Meta Verified feature was first introduced in Australia and New Zealand in February, 2023 exclusive to Facebook and Instagram only. This feature was later gradually rolled out to other countries in the later part of 2023 including India. The current monthly subscription plan for Meta Verified service starts at $14.99 for WhatsApp Business Standard and goes up to $119.99 for WhatsApp Business Premium.
The social media giant also said that it is training its AI tools to help merchants on WhatsApp Business better serve their customers by letting AI respond to the “most popular questions businesses receive on WhatsApp”. This is intended to solve customer queries in a much quicker way, which will further improve business-customer relationship.
