What started as a messaging tool to connect with friends and family has now transformed into a powerful platform for businesses to flourish. WhatsApp has come a long way since its inception and it’s now an integral part of business operations. In this article, we’ll introduce the different WhatsApp products and show you how to change WhatsApp to business account, as well as how to convert WhatsApp Business App to Business API account.
How to Change WhatsApp to Business Account: An Introduction
With over 2 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. Currently, it has three products available in the market: WhatsApp Messenger, WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp Business API.
Before we do a deep dive into the technicalities of how to turn WhatsApp into a business account, let’s first understand the different products WhatsApp offers.
WhatsApp Messenger
Launched in 2009, WhatsApp Messenger is a free messaging app to send and receive messages, images, audio, videos and file documents. Originally targeted at individual users, the popularity of the app also attracted solopreneurs and micro businesses.
Seeing there’s a demand for a business-oriented solution, WhatsApp introduced the WhatsApp Business App in 2018 to support business communications.
WhatsApp Business App
With the introduction of WhatsApp Business App, it has opened up a slew of opportunities for businesses to engage with customers. This free-to-download app comes with a set of business tools targeted at small businesses.
WhatsApp Business App can help small businesses thrive, but it has certain limitations. One of the biggest downsides is you can only use the app on one phone and up to four devices.
For businesses with more than five users, WhatsApp Business App will no longer be a viable option. In that case, we’d recommend switching to WhatsApp Business API.
WhatsApp Business API
Finally, we have WhatsApp Business API. It’s designed for medium to large companies wanting to use WhatsApp Business with multiple users. Unlike WhatsApp Messenger and the business app, the API does not have an app or a front-end interface and needs to be integrated into business software to send and receive messages.
WhatsApp Business API offers advanced tools to scale businesses and help with conversational sales, conversational support and promotional messaging.
Compared to the other two WhatsApp products, WhatsApp Business API brings a whole host of benefits to businesses. These include:
- Allows multiple logins
- Verifies businesses with a green tick
- Integrates with tools like CRM, analytics and other third-party apps
- Allows broadcast messages to be sent to more than 256 contacts at a time
- Offers advanced analytics and reports to track agent performance
We hope this helps you get a better understanding of the different products WhatsApp offers, and in turn, make the right decision for your business. Next, we’ll show you how to change from a personal WhatsApp account to the WhatsApp Business App account.
How to Change WhatsApp to Business Account: A Guide
Here, we’ve listed the step-by-step guide on how to change from a personal WhatsApp account to a WhatsApp business App account on iPhone (the process works similarly on Android).
First, you need to back up your chat history to avoid losing any data. Install the WhatsApp Business App on your phone. Click Agree to the Terms of Service and verify your phone number, and finally create your business profile.
Now that you’ve set up your WhatsApp Business profile, let’s move on to the next section where we’ll show you how to upgrade WhatsApp Business App to WhatsApp Business API.
How to Change from WhatsApp Business App to WhatsApp Business API
Tried using WhatsApp Business App for your business but not finding the features you need? Then you should make the switch to WhatsApp Business API. This is ideal for businesses with teams of sales and support agents.
For businesses looking to apply for a WhatsApp Business API account, there are a few things to note:
- It requires a third-party service called Business Solution Providers (BSP) to connect businesses to WhatsApp API
- Costs include: WhatsApp API fees, WhatsApp Partner pricing and messaging software cost
- Need a customer conversation management software like respond.io
- Governed by WhatsApp Commerce Policy
Upgrading from WhatsApp Business App to WhatsApp Business API may sound daunting, but with our comprehensive guide, you’ll get it set up in no time.
There you have it. We hope this guide provides clarity on choosing the best WhatsApp product for your business, as well as when and how to convert WhatsApp to Business account.
Looking for a reliable and affordable WhatsApp Partner? Get started with respond.io today!
Further Reading
Interested to learn more about how WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp Business API benefit your business? Take a look at some of these articles below: