WhatsApp Android Beta Adds QR Code Mobile Payments

WhatsApp is a big deal in India, but knowing what we know so far about the Indian mobile payment market, no one can count on their current position for very long. Innovation is necessary to hold ground in a market where a lot of competitors are eagerly trying to land market share, and WhatsApp proved this no different by bringing out a new Android beta that features quick response (QR) code support.

It’s only beta support right now, for users in the Android beta channel, but reports suggest the development will go wider in a few weeks. Those who want to send money by QR code will need to enable WhatsApp Payments, and from there, sending money to your target user of choice will be that much easier.

This isn’t the first recent renovation that WhatsApp has made, either; recently it brought out a feature called “Send to UPI ID”, which allowed users to send money to any Unified Payments Interface (UPI) code in the country. Of course, more features are coming to WhatsApp, but these are less about mobile payments and more about GIF and sticker searches.

While this doesn’t exactly sound like a great advancement—why does anyone need a QR code when they’ve already got UPI support?—there will likely be at least some users who find it worthwhile. Those users are increasingly likely to stick around and not jump ship for one of the many competitors in the market space. This isn’t a great new feature, but it’s one that will help the company hold its position in the face of a market where there’s a lot of options for the end users. It’s not exactly good news, either, given what WhatsApp has on tap for future development. GIF and sticker searches are all fine and well, but are these features really going to keep people interested or bring in new users?

QR codes in WhatsApp certainly won’t be unwelcome, but this isn’t exactly a big deal. Hopefully WhatsApp can ramp up its development and ultimately produce new advances in mobile payments that will make it worth sticking around for.