WhatsApp, the leading messaging app, has started its payments service in India on Friday. WhatsApp received National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) approval on Wednesday evening to ‘Go Live’ on UPI in a graded manner.

In 2018, WhatsApp had started testing its UPI-based payments service in India, which allows users to utilize the messaging platform to send and receive money. The testing was limited to about a million users as it waited for regulatory approvals to come in.

On Thursday, NPCI, which runs the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) used for real-time payments, has allowed WhatsApp to start its payments service in the country in a graded manner.

"Starting today, people across India will be able to send money through WhatsApp. This secure payments experience makes transferring money just as easy as sending a message. People can securely send money to a family member or share the cost of goods from a distance without having to exchange cash in person or going to a local bank,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.

It added that the payments feature has been designed in partnership with NPCI using UPI, an India-first, a real-time payment system that enables transactions with over 160 supported banks. In June this year, WhatsApp had launched 'WhatsApp Pay' in Brazil - making it the first country where the service was widely rolled out.

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