Apple is going to release a new feature for iMessage that will enable users to chat directly with businesses using the company’s messaging app. Apple is calling this feature Business Chat and the company first unveiled it at the Worldwide Developer Conference last year. The feature is going to be launched this spring with a handful of partners.
Apple explains that Business Chat will allow users to communicate directly with businesses right inside iMessage. It’s going to launch this feature in beta when iOS 11.3 is publicly released this spring.
Several partners will support this feature at launch, they include Wells Fargo, Discover, Hilton, and Lowe’s. Users will be able to use Business Chat to have a conversation with the partners’ service reps, schedule an appointment or even make purchases using Apple Pay in the iMessage app.
The Business Chat feature doesn’t share the user’s contact information with the businesses and gives users the ability to stop chatting with the business at any time they want. Apple hasn’t confirmed a precise release date for iOS 11.3, the next major update for its mobile platform, it has only said that the firmware update will be released this spring.
iOS 11.3 is also going to bring the much-anticipated feature to disable processor throttling on old iPhones with degraded batteries, this has been at the center of Apple’s recent batterygate controversy.
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