WhatsApp seems to really want businesses to sign up and have official accounts on the messaging app. One thing that they’re doing as a sort of incentive is that they are letting business accounts be verified and get that important green check next to their name. Right now it’s still in a pilot program so only a small number of businesses are included, but eventually, they will be expanding it to all who signed up or will sign up for WhatsApp.
Now if you see a green badge next to a contact on your list, then it means WhatsApp has confirmed that the phone number does indeed belong to a business account. And you’ll also know it when you chat with them because their text bubble is going to be yellow. If the number is already saved in your address book, you’ll see the name that you originally saved it under. But if you don’t have that number saved, what you’ll see is the name the business chose for their account.
One caveat, at least for the user, is that the conversations cannot be deleted. In normal chats, you can actually choose which messages you’d want to remove or even remove the whole conversations themselves. But for verified businesses, WhatsApp wants you to keep a record of all your conversations. But if you want the business to stop contacting you, you can just block the account.
This move is similar to what parent company Facebook is doing for businesses pages. Having a verified account badge makes your company seem more trustworthy in a sea of brands trying to get your attention even in messaging apps.
SOURCE: WhatsApp
