If you are a business owner who already uses WhatsApp Messenger for business-related conversations or are considering using it, you should probably go for the WhatsApp Business mobile app. The app is packed with highly sophisticated features that are extremely useful for both inbound and outbound marketing.
The WhatsApp for Business app is clearly superior to the traditional WhatsApp Messenger in terms of functionality, however, it still has its own limitations. The major drawback of the WhatsApp Business app is its limited ability to scale. Hence, it is ideal for small-sized businesses but not exactly feasible for businesses that are growing and expanding rapidly, or medium to large-sized businesses and organizations that are already well established.
In this article, we will explore in detail the top 10 most useful features of the WhatsApp Business mobile app and how they can help you increase prospective leads, improve customer engagement, and enhance customer experience and retention.
Table of Contents
Top 10 Most Useful Features of the WhatsApp Business Mobile App
1. WhatsApp Catalog

Imagine enabling your customers to make purchases and complete payments without having to leave WhatsApp throughout the entire process. This is exactly what the WhatsApp catalog feature is capable of.
WhatsApp catalog is a virtual storefront that gives you the ability to showcase your products or services directly on WhatsApp and thus giving your customers a wholesome and complete shopping experience entirely within WhatsApp. This helps reduce drop-off rates by eliminating unnecessary redirects to external sites.
Make sure every product you add to your WhatsApp catalog has the following components filled out for optimum results:
- Name
- Price
- Description
- Link
- Product code
2. Short Links
Short links are a great way to increase inbound leads. Short links act as a digital contact point that, when clicked, leads your customers directly to a WhatsApp chat with your business along with a preset message.
A short link for your business is automatically generated when you create an account on the WhatsApp Business app. Just click on “Tools” and then “Short link” to view your auto-generated link. Now, copy and paste this link to your website, social media profiles, and email signatures.
These links can also be shared as a QR code, which your customers can scan to get into a direct WhatsApp chat with your business.
3. Basic Automation

The WhatsApp Business app gives you access to basic automations like greeting messages and away messages. The “Greeting message” automation feature sends a predefined text message to customers automatically when they initiate a chat with your business.
The “Away message” automation sends a pre-built message to your customers letting them know that you are currently unavailable and will respond to their query as soon as you get back. This makes your customers feel like they are acknowledged even in your absence, and it is executed without manual intervention. This feature also lets your customers know when you will be available to attend to them, therefore reducing their anticipation and frustration.
With these basic automations, you can rest easy knowing that your customers are attended to even during your out-of-office hours. Although these features are splendid, they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to WhatsApp automation. Advanced automation features like WhatsApp flows and chatbots are available only through the WhatsApp Business API.
4. Custom Labelling

Labels help you organize the chaos and keep your customer interactions smooth and simple. Labels are an impeccable feature that lets you categorize your chats based on factors like purchase status, issues, queries, and customer types.
Segmenting your customers based on their personality type empowers you to send hyper-personalized messages that resonate with them, thereby increasing the chances of making a conversion.
Classifying customers based on purchase status helps you and your team stay organized by resuming the conversation from where the previous person left off. Segregating your customers based on whether they are new or recurring can help you personalize even further.
5. Personalized Messaging using Broadcast Lists
WhatsApp broadcast lists empower you to send messages in bulk to your customers. Think about it, would you feel particularly excited if you knew you were just another name on the list? You would want to feel special and valued, right? Well, that’s exactly how your customers would want to be treated as well, not just like another fish in the sea.
Personalized messaging is the solution to this problem. Surely, as a business owner, you would not have the time to type out a personalized message to each and every one of your customers. You might now have this question: “How can I send messages in bulk while also maintaining a personal touch?”. You can achieve both these goals using WhatsApp broadcast lists.
Using something as simple as the recipient’s first name goes a long way in creating customer trust and loyalty. You can take this a step further by referring to their previous purchases, if they are a recurring customer, to create a sense of familiarity.
6. Click-to-WhatsApp Ads

You can now run Click-to-WhatsApp ads, also known as ads that click to WhatsApp or CTWAs, right on the WhatsApp Business app. Click-to-WhatsApp ads are exactly what they sound like – an advertisement that, when clicked on, redirects your customers to a WhatsApp chat with your business.
These Click-to-WhatsApp ads are run on other Meta platforms, namely Facebook and Instagram, that, when clicked, open up a WhatsApp conversation with your business. CTWAs are great for generating leads and nurturing them. With CTWAs, you can also collect information like names, phone numbers, and email addresses without the need for contact forms.
You can customize your CTWAs with call-to-action buttons and compelling copy to encourage users to message you. This makes them ideal for quick engagement and personalized communication.
Here is how you can run Click-to-WhatsApp ads using the WhatsApp Business app:
- Open your WhatsApp Business app and click on the three dots in the top right corner
- Click on “ Tools”
- Click on “Advertise”
- Choose one of the available options
- Your catalog items
- Your status
- Media from your gallery
- Photo from your phone
- Select the images you wish to upload and make sure that they are clear, simple, and in focus.
- Add a description for your ad and click on “Next”.
- Select your budget and duration of the ads.
- Select the age group and gender of your audience, and then click on “Next”
- Your advertisement should be live by now.
7. Business Profile
Downloading and registering your number on the WhatsApp Business app gives you a unique business profile. This lets your customers know that they are dealing with a business when they initiate a chat with you.
You can update your business profile with essential information such as your business’s name, address, profile picture, category, email, and other necessary details. This helps you build trust with your customers and provides them with other methods to get in touch with your business.
Did you know that you can now get Meta-verified just by using the WhatsApp Business app? Yes, we are talking about that super special blue tick symbol that appears next to your profile. With the WhatsApp Business app, getting access to the blue tick is as simple as buying a paid subscription plan.
Follow these steps to get the blue tick for your business:
- In the WhatsApp Business app, click on the 3 dots and then go to the Settings page.
- Click on “Meta Verified”.
- Among the different plans available, choose the plan that suits your needs.
- Choose your payment method and make your purchase.
Note that your business profile needs to meet the forthcoming eligibility requirements:
- Have a presence on the WhatsApp Business app for a certain number of days.
- Must have recently sent a message.
- Be located in a country where Meta Verified for WhatsApp Business is available.
- Have a profile name and profile picture.
- Should not have an active subscription to WhatsApp Business Premium.
- Should not have an active Meta Verified subscription through Meta Business Suite.
Acquiring the blue tick enhances customer trust and increases the authenticity of your brand. Having this “Badge of honor” reassures your customers that they are indeed conversing with a credible and reliable business.
8. Payments
This is one of the most important features of WhatsApp, which allows businesses like yours to accept payments for your products and services directly through WhatsApp. These payments are processed by Ceilo and powered by Facebook Pay.
WhatsApp Pay, along with the WhatsApp catalog, completely eliminates the need to leave WhatsApp for your customers. It is also crucial to note that this feature is only available in selected countries, namely India, Brazil, and Singapore.
If WhatsApp Pay isn’t available in your country, then you can send secure payment links within WhatsApp chats to accept payments. Redirect your customers to your website’s checkout page or a trusted payment gateway, ensuring a seamless purchasing experience while keeping the conversation within WhatsApp as much as possible.
9. Marketing messages
Marketing messages essentially combine the benefits of broadcast lists and customer targeting by sending your customers customized messages that are delivered to their personal inbox. You can use this feature to efficiently run retargeting campaigns by sending messages to multiple contacts and personalizing them by using their names and referring to their previous purchases.
Unlike bulk messaging using broadcast lists, you need to pay to use this feature. The price for sending out marketing messages varies from country to country. You can find the pricing for your country here.
Marketing messages can be utilized to improve the performance of your WhatsApp marketing campaigns by sending your customers messages like,
- Information about a newly launched product
- Limited time offers
- Product promotions
- Feedback requests
10. Quick Replies
The WhatsApp Business app permits you to send interactive messages with buttons that, when clicked on, perform specific functions. Creating interactive messages with custom buttons makes it easier for your customers to communicate with your business.
There are two types of interactive messages: Quick replies and Call-to-action buttons.
Quick replies are incredibly useful when it comes to answering frequently asked customer queries. This saves you a lot of time and makes it a lot easier for your customer support team, who can then focus on solving more complicated queries that are actually worth their time.
There you have it, the top 10 most useful features of the WhatsApp Business app. Remember that the WhatsApp Business app is free to use, so we encourage you to take maximum advantage of these spectacular features to grow and take your business to the next level.
Limitations of the WhatsApp Business app
The WhatsApp Business app gives businesses access to a number of fantastic features, however, they are only enough to keep up with the needs of a small-sized business. For medium to large-sized companies and businesses that aspire to grow in the future, the features provided by the free WhatsApp Business app do not suffice. Here are some of the main drawbacks:
- Limited user access: A WhatsApp Business account allows only one user per account, and hence it cannot be used by teams.
- Limited automations: An effective business is one that runs on autopilot or at least requires limited human intervention. Greeting messages and away messages won’t take you far in your WhatsApp automation journey.
- Device restrictions: The WhatsApp Business app can only be installed on one device at a time.
- Limited analytics: The analytics provided by the WhatsApp Business app are limited and cannot provide a clear picture of the performance of your WhatsApp marketing campaigns.
- Lack of integration capabilities: Cannot be integrated with your CRM, CMS, help desks, and e-commerce platforms. It also lacks a shared team inbox.
- Not built for mass messaging: The broadcast lists have a maximum limit of 256 contacts.
To really capitalize on WhatsApp’s full potential as a marketing medium, businesses should get access to the WhatsApp Business API.
WhatsApp Business API
Facebook launched WhatsApp Business API in August 2018 to cater to the needs of larger businesses with more complex needs that could not be fulfilled using the limited features provided by the WhatsApp Business app.
WhatsApp Business API is the official cloud-based API provided by WhatsApp that gives businesses and organizations a host of really powerful tools that enable them to send marketing messages at scale, communicate and engage with customers, to provide support and sell products and services.
In order to access the WhatsApp API, businesses need to either build their own tools, which might cost a lot of money, time, and labor to create, or use a pre-built no-code solution like WANotifier. Using WANotifier gives you all the advanced features of WhatsApp API, such as:
- A unified WhatsApp team inbox
- Bulk and automated messages
- Automated chatbots
- Auto-replies and more potent automation features
- Detailed reports and analytics
- WhatsApp templates
- Integrations with useful third-party apps and tools
- A dedicated mobile app and so much more
Apart from all these superior, top-grade features, the icing on the cake is the fact that WANotifier has a 0% markup policy. This means that you get charged nothing more than the standard WhatsApp API charges. WANotifier also has a free forever plan that gives you immediate access to the WhatsApp API without the need to spend a single cent!
Still not convinced? Checkout some more reasons to choose WhatsApp API over the WhatsApp Business app. So what are you waiting for? Make the upgrade and sign up to use WANotifier for free!
Conclusion
Despite its shortcomings, the WhatsApp business app is a revolutionary leap in the world of conversational marketing that provides businesses with quality features for free. If you are still using WhatsApp Messenger for your business needs, then it’s high time you make the transition to the WhatsApp Business App. If you are already a WhatsApp Business app user and wish to grow your business in the near future, then you should transition into a WhatsApp API user.