Image credit – TechRadar

With Facebook Messenger and Gmail support peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, we suppose it was only a matter of time before it came to WhatsApp as well. We have been hearing about the company’s plans since at least last year, but the good news is that the feature could be launching as soon as next week.

However before you get too excited, it seems that WhatsApp’s P2P payments feature could be limited to India at launch. The system will use an UPI-based service and will be working with several banks in India to process the payments, which includes HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank. We wouldn’t be surprised if the feature eventually made its way to other parts of the world, but as we have seen with regards to payments services, it can sometimes take a while to get financial institutions from various countries to come on board.

According to the report, WhatsApp was apparently waiting to get at least four major banks on board before launching the service, but ultimately decided to go ahead with it anyway as they felt that their rivals were already ahead of them. The feature has actually been spotted in the beta for Android but the launch next week should make it available to all (it is unclear if the feature will launch on iOS at the same time).

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