WhatsApp supports UPI payments like other apps in India. The messaging app started the pilot for the feature a few years back, but still lags behind the likes of PhonePe, Google Pay and even Paytm. But soon, the Meta-owned platform could get a big head start on its rivals, with rumours suggesting that WhatsApp will soon offer international UPI payments for users in India.
That’s right, WhatsApp could actually take on the likes of PayPal with its UPI payment service that will be accessible in other countries. The details about this supposed upcoming feature has been shared by an X user called AssembleDebug this week.
The tipster talks about digging through the messaging app to source future updates and features that might make its way to the users. He has also shared a screenshot, which shows the international payments option with an off/on drop-down in the menu.
Once you enable the international payments option, WhatsApp takes you to another page, where you can see the payments feature seems limited to businesses and only works in supported countries, which could be the UPI-supporting countries.
The page also mentions the payments can be sent for up to 3 months, and we are not sure how that works out. You can activate the international payment on WhatsApp by authorising using your four or six-digit UPI PIN.
WhatsApp has over 400 million active users in India, and UPI has become a popular mode of payment ever since the country’s government made a strong push for digital payments. The combo of these two services, and enabling international payments on them could be a death kneel for many payment services.
Having said that, UPI payments are linked through bank accounts, so it is obvious that the forex charges will be included in the final amount, and we’re keen to see how those numbers are worked out so that people can actually start using the service when it officially launches. We’ll be keeping a close on the future WhatsApp beta releases to see any hints of the special UPI feature and keep you up-to-date on its possible availability.
In the meanwhile, WhatsApp has added a quick shortcut for the UPI payment scanner in its latest Android beta update, which allows people to quickly scan the QR code and make UPI payment through their bank account in the country.
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