WhatsApp already lets you chat with companies, however you could quickly even have the power to search out them by means of the app as effectively. This week, the corporate began testing a listing characteristic that enables customers to scan by means of native outlets and providers which have a presence on WhatsApp and speak to them. The device is at present solely accessible in São Paulo, Brazil, however a screenshot shared by Will Cathcart, the pinnacle of WhatsApp, reveals that you need to use the characteristic to kind companies by class and the way shut they’re to you.

Matt Idema, vp of enterprise messaging at Facebook, instructed Reuters the take a look at includes “thousands” of outlets and providers. He added the corporate is more likely to make the characteristic accessible in India and Indonesia subsequent. “Based on feedback from the people who try it over the next few months, we’ll look at expanding this service to other cities and other types of businesses available on WhatsApp,” Cathcart said separately on Twitter.

While it’s greatest generally known as an app you utilize to talk together with your family and friends, WhatsApp has more and more pushed into the e-commerce area. Since 2018, it has supplied a separate app for companies to make use of to speak with their prospects. More just lately, it’s gone out of its strategy to make it simpler for folks to buy instantly from WhatsApp. At occasions, that hasn’t at all times labored out for the corporate, as was the case when it modified its privateness coverage earlier within the yr. On that word, Cathcart stated WhatsApp received’t log the situation of a person or the companies they browse when utilizing the listing characteristic.