WhatsApp is giving business accounts verified green badges if their contact information checks out. So far, business verification is limited to the small number of businesses that are participating in the pilot program. If the phone number of a contact belongs to a business account, it earns a green check.
WhatsApp now adds verified badges to select business accounts
Green check for a business phone number
Green check for a business phone number
Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images
WhatsApp is also going to let you know if you’re talking to a business by showing a yellow text bubble in the chat. These texts can’t be deleted, according to WhatsApp. In general, users are able to delete messages and chats from a regular conversation, but WhatsApp seems to be forcing users to keep records of chats with a verified business.
The green badges are an effort to make businesses appear more trustworthy on the messaging app, and could encourage more businesses to get on the platform. It’s also another feature that WhatsApp’s parent company, Facebook, already incorporates on its own platform — Facebook has a gray badge for verified business pages.
The two platforms continue to grow closer in features. Last week, WhatsApp got colorful status updates that first rolled out on Facebook.
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