Whatsapp Product Ideas

Whatsapp is one of the key personal channels of an internet user- more than just personal messaging app- Whatsapp is now connecting business to users- which opens up room for new possibilities. presenting some of features i feel Whatsapp shall incorporate

Potential Whatsapp Features

1. Person Excluded Group Messaging

One of the weird thing about Whatsapp is number of groups- for each friend's birthday/ wedding/ farewell (Job farewell i mean)- another group is created excluding this main person, where everyone decides, pays amount and exits the group, the number of groups hence created, exited or remains as ghost groups are literally infinite

A Simple feature of starting conversation in group excluding certain/ set of people would solve this

Could be made simpler like -@Rahul excludes the Rahul from conversation- other people in group can continue reply to this room or sending message in group

2. Brand Search Visibility

While Whatsapp continues to be free- i believe it can still monetize by other ways- one i feel would work easily is Brand search visibility

Whatsapp is one of the best channels for brand engagement, revival & cross- sell- having said that i feel Whatsapp can be One Single channel for customer support

Current customer support cycle

Just think as an user- you have to raise queries- you have to search for the brand, go to their site, login via otp or worst case passwords (which you would not remember unless you're a bot), then browse their support- if its specific product- you have to insert the purchase id what not

Whatsapp Customer support cycle

While for each purchase, mobile numbers are collected & saved by brands- Whatsapp can be easily used as single customer support channel- all you have to do is search for brand in search bar, go to their whatsapp business page, brand identifies you as customer as number is linked- business profile makes it very easier to raise query, get the status of the query and provide any inputs on the go

The Monetization

But Wait.. Can you actually search for brand name in Whatsapp search bar & visit their profile.. Currently? Nope.. Brands aren't listed public in Whatsapp- 

Allowing brands to do this (with all verification steps) and charging them for showing up in search could work in Whatsapp monetization

Why this would work?

• Brands spend crazy money on call centres some of which cases can be easily solved by this
• If the feature is scaled- it becomes kind of requirement for other brands to enroll their brand- as otherwise their customers feel disappointed about the brand - If brands are ready to pay for twitter tick why not this?

3. Brand Link Converter

This one can be activated only for big brands

Essentially whenever brand name comes in a message- This shall be auto replaced by website link (& deep linked to app)- Brands can be charged for each click that happens on this

This might face some complexities

• Can be applied only for big brands- for smaller ones- their might be multiple brands (by domain extensions)
• User can be talking negatively about the brand- where the conversion would impact negatively
• As messages are end to end encrypted- the conversion might have to involve some ch

and yes they should remove that " this message has been deleted", what do you think?