How To Use WhatsApp Pay To Send/Receive Money: 5 Easy Steps Which You Can Try Right Now!

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has granted regulatory approval to WhatsApp on February 6, 2020 to operate WhatsApp Pay in India.

In 2018, nearly 2 years back, the California-headquartered messaging app stated that they are offering WhatsApp Pay to the users in India as part of a trial run. 

The approval for the app came in for holding an invitation-only trial run for the in-app payments service in India, and was followed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s go-ahead for the app that was reportedly issued recently. 

What are WhatsApp Pay’s Plans for India?

The delay in the launch of WhatsApp Pay was mainly due to an issue with data localisation, as per the Government’s requirement for digital payments firms to store all critical data locally, within India. 

A source said, “If WhatsApp is able to fulfil the compliance requirements, the messaging platform will be able to do a full roll-out.” 

The leading messaging app, which was bought by Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook in 2014, counts India as its biggest market. In July 2019, WhatsApp was reported to have over 400 million monthly active users in India. 

The WhatsApp Pay Launching with a Phased-Rollout?

Reportedly, the public rollout of WhatsApp Pay will take place in multiple phases, which is apparently due to its large number of users in India. With reports of agreement with Indian data localisation norms, WhatsApp is expected to take time to localise its financial transaction data, and as a result, WhatsApp Pay is scheduled to roll out in phases.

WhatsApp Pay plans to cater its first phase operations to 1 crore Indian users. 

According to reports from News 18, this development has been confirmed, and new users can sign up now on WhatsApp Pay. However, the sign-up period will likely be limited, and its deadline is likely to be just before reopening again at a later stage.

How can you become one of the WhatsApp Pay users?

1. On WhatsApp, tap on the attachment button inside a chat window. All Android and iOS users should see a ‘Payments’ option. 
2. Tap on the ‘Payment’ option, and new users will be required to accept the terms and conditions of the service.
3. After agreeing to this, users will be taken to the UPI registration window. This process will follow the same process of authentication as any existing UPI payments app. 
4. For first-time UPI users, you will be required to select your bank, following which your phone number will be authenticated. You will then be required to choose your UPI ID, and set an UPI PIN as made compulsory by your bank. 
5. Once this entire setup is complete, users will be able to invite others by sending a payment request to those who do not have the service yet. Alternatively, transactions can be made to existing WhatsApp Pay users.