WhatsApp could soon charge businesses for more advanced features
What you need to know
WhatsApp is reportedly readying a new subscription offering for businesses.
WhatsApp Business users who pay will be able to link more devices to their account.
We don’t yet know how much the subscription would cost or what other features could be included.
The subscription offering will be optional, but it will bring more features to WhatsApp Business users who pay.
WhatsApp might soon offer a subscription plan for WhatsApp Business users, according to a new report. While optional, the subscription would unlock additional functionality that could be beneficial to a business using the instant messaging service.
While details on the new WhatsApp subscription are scarce, beta watchers WABetaInfo have noticed that a subscription plan is in the works. Such a plan would reportedly allow more devices to be linked to a specific business account, for example. Right now, businesses can sign up to four devices into the same account — the new WhatsApp Business subscription would increase that to ten.
The subscription plan is reserved for WhatsApp business accounts and offers additional features to businesses. For example, you know you can normally link up to 4 devices when using multi-device, but if you subscribe to their new plan, you will be able to link up to 10 devices. This is very good news for business accounts and it’s only one of the first features offered by the future subscription plan to business accounts. More additional services will be announced in the future.
WhatsApp also appears to be revamping the Linked Devices setup screen in preparation for the new subscription, although timelines for when it would be available are unclear. We also don’t know pricing, either.
It’s important to note that individual WhatsApp users won’t be impacted by this change and those businesses who don’t need the additional functionality won’t have to pay, either. The new subscription will be optional.
WhatsApp is one of the best iPhone apps for small businesses that want to keep in contact with their customers and while the increase in linked devices might not be a game-changer for many, we don’t yet know what other features could be offered in the future.
