If you didn’t know that WhatsApp had its own P2P payments system, you can’t really be faulted for that. This is because WhatsApp payments are currently only available in Brazil and India, but it seems that the company could be gearing up to bring it to the US, according to an APK teardown by the folks over at XDA.
XDA wasn’t alone in discovering this as WABetaInfo had discovered something similar, suggesting that WhatsApp could be using Novi as its payments platform of choice in the US. For those unfamiliar, Novi is a digital wallet system owned by Meta. It is currently only available in the US and Guatemala.
However, based on the information discovered, it seems that WhatsApp could be gearing up to integrate Novi into its platform where users could use it to send payments to each other. There are currently several different methods that US users can send and receive money from friends, colleagues, and family members, so this would be one more alternative.
Having it integrated into WhatsApp, a chat service used by millions every month, could also help it gain traction quickly and easily, especially if it’s going to be a lot easier to send money with someone you’re already chatting with. WhatsApp also already supports business accounts, so allowing users to make purchases through those accounts and pay using Novi could also be a very beneficial feature.
Filed in . Read more about Apps, Social Hit and Whatsapp. Source: xda-developers