WhatsApp may eventually require users who make payments over the service to verify their identities. According to an APK breakdown, the WhatsApp v2.21.22.6 beta version has new strings that hint to a verification system. Last year, WhatsApp Pay was made available to users in India.
XDA developers discovered the following strings during the APK teardown: “Your identity could not be verified. “Try uploading the documents again,” and “Verify your identity to continue using WhatsApp payments.” Users of other Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps, such as PhonePe and Google Pay, are not required to verify their identity. Paytm and MobiKwik, for example, demand customers to complete them know your customer (KYC) verification. In Brazil, WhatsApp Pay requires users to authenticate payments using Facebook Pay.
WhatsApp has not made an official statement, but the strings suggest that the app may be introducing a new Wallet system or accepting payments directly through the app. WhatsApp’s user interface (UI) for users who have enabled the payment option was changed earlier this month. The Facebook-owned company said that it has started integrating the rupee sign in its chat composer to make it easier for Indian users to send payments using WhatsApp.
In November of last year, WhatsApp gained approval from the National Payments Corporation of India to launch the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). WhatsApp was also said to be developing a pay return option for WhatsApp Payments users in India. It speculated that the app may eventually give rewards to users who pay through WhatsApp Payments. According to the source, the feature will be available in a future update and will only be relevant to UPI payments.
