WhatsApp introduces QR codes to help you connect with businesses

Facebook has today announced a brand new feature to help you connect with businesses on WhatsApp.

In a blog post today, Facebook stated:

As businesses across the world prepare to re-open and expand online, people need easy ways to get in touch with businesses to ask questions, get information or find something they might like to buy.

Today we support more than 50 million WhatsApp Business app users. To help them and the thousands of larger businesses on the WhatsApp Business API get discovered, we're introducing new features to start a chat with a business on WhatsApp and see what goods and services they offer.

The system is fairly self-explanatory, businesses will be able to supply users with QR codes on places like their storefront, product packaging, receipts or websites to help customers easily start a conversation. This is to replace the process of adding the number of businesses to your contacts, one number at a time:

For example, Ki Mindful Wearing, an activewear brand in Brazil that helped us test the feature, is placing QR codes on packages and product tags to invite customers to reach out for support on WhatsApp.

Scanning a QR code will open a chat with an optional pre-populated message created by the business to start the conversation. With the app's messaging tools, businesses can quickly send information such as their catalog to get the conversation going. To start using QR codes, businesses can follow these quick steps.

From today, Businesses around the world will be able to create QR codes using the WhatsApp Business app or the WhatsApp Business API. Facebook also highlighted how catalogs have become a popular way for people to engage with businesses on WhatsApp, stating that 40 million people view a business catalog each month on the platform. Facebook is now making it possible to share catalogs and individual items as links on websites, Facebook, Instagram, and elsewhere.

You can read the full press release here.