Messaging platform WhatsApp launched updates to its Business API that will make it quicker for businesses to get started and for people to easily chat with these businesses.

“We have cut down the time it takes for businesses to get up and running from weeks to just five minutes. Whether a business wants to work with a business solution provider or get support directly from Facebook in the future, these improvements will make it easier for more medium and larger businesses to have customer conversations on WhatsApp,” the Facebook-owned company said in a blogpost on Wednesday.

More types of messages

As more businesses come onto WhatsApp, the company is improving on how businesses can communicate with their customers, it said. For example, businesses were often limited to sending timely notifications, which made it difficult to follow up with customers outside of a 24-hour window.

“So now we will support more types of messages — to let people know when an item is back in stock, for example. We have also seen how periodic updates from health authorities about responding to the pandemic have been helpful and we want to make this kind of service available for more types of conversations,” the company said.

The firm is also rolling out new messaging features that can help people get business done faster. New list messages present a menu of up to 10 options, so people no longer need to type out a response. Reply buttons will allow people to quickly make a selection from up to three options with just a quick tap that a business can set ahead of time through their WhatsApp Business API account, the company announced at the F8 Refresh event, an annual developer conference.

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