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WhatsApp Pay, one of the most anticipated features of WhatsApp has many times in the recent past hit a roadblock and the service is getting delayed for the Indian consumers. The peer to peer, UPI-based payment service once launched will allow users to send money directly from the WhatsApp. To initiate and transfer payments, users will be required to integrate their UPI accounts to WhatsApp.
While the app has been cited to launch several times, the app is getting delayed. So, why is the app getting delayed? Well, the primary reason behind the delay is the issue WhatsApp is facing with compliance on data processing regulations as per the Indian government.
According to the central government and Reserve Bank of India, while the present regulations allow for the data to be processed outside of India, but, it must return to servers in India within 24 hours. Additionally, no copy of it would remain in any foreign country. WhatsApp on the other is having issues in complying with these regulations, which is creating a delay in the launch of the app.
However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on its earning call said that despite the data compliance issues from the Indian government, the company has completed testing WhatsApp Pay with over a million people in the country and the service will now be launched soon. Additionally, one of the big four consultancies is also reported to be conducting an audit on the security compliance of WhatsApp Pay.
‘We're very optimistic that we're going to be able to launch to everyone in India soon but, of course, will share more news when we have that,’ Zuckerberg said.
In India, WhatsApp has over 400 million Indian users. Other big tech giants including Google has already launched their payment platform Google Pay in India. Once launched, WhatsApp will join the league of PhonePe, and Paytm that are already offering UPI-based payment transactions.
We believe, WhatsApp Pay will be rolled out by the end of 2019.
Additional new features coming soon to WhatsApp
The instant messaging app is said to bring five more features to its app in 2019 including Boomerang, Memoji Stickers, Dark Mode, Sharing WhatsApp status post on Facebook and Contacts Ranking.
Similar to Instagram’s Boomerang, the feature in the WhatsApp will be available in the video type While the dark mode is available system-wide on Android 10 beta that transforms the text from black to white-black, WhatsApp will soon roll it out for its dedicated app in the coming week. The dark mode on WhatsApp will also help users save battery.