WhatsApp to Warn Businesses Violating its Commerce Policy, Developing New ‘Kept’ Messages Section: Report

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a feature to warn businesses that violate the company's Commerce Policy, according to details shared by a feature tracker. The warning will be visible above the chat list, informing companies regarding the Meta-owned firm's policies and will be limited to WhatsApp Business accounts. Meanwhile, the messaging service is also working on adding a new section that will allow users to view messages that they have opted to “keep” messages from disappearing chats — another feature that is currently in development.

According to a report by feature tracker WABetaInfo, the company is developing a warning banner for WhatsApp Business accounts, that have violated the company's Commerce Policy. The feature was spotted days after the messaging service announced it was granting access to its cloud-based API to all businesses and developers. The warning reads “WhatsApp access at risk” followed by “To keep using WhatsApp, start following policy”. According to the tracker, the banner could be shown to businesses in the future as a warning before their account is banned.

A screenshot of the warning banner spotted by the feature tracker on WhatsApp Business
Photo Credit: WABetaInfo

Last year, WhatsApp had updated its Commerce Policy for businesses offering goods and services for sale, informing them that they must comply with the policy. The WhatsApp Commerce Policy bans the sale of drugs (prescription, recreational, or otherwise), tobacco, alcohol, unsafe ingestible supplements, weapons, ammunition, explosives, live animals, animal parts, adult products, body parts and fluids, medical devices, dating services, piracy, subscription services, fraudulent goods and services, real, virtual, or fake currency, among other banned products and services.

Meanwhile, the company was also spotted working on a new feature that allows users to view messages they have saved from disappearing conversations. Discovered by the feature tracker last month, WhatsApp is said to be developing a feature that will allow users to “keep” some messages that are scheduled to disappear. The company is now working on a section on WhatsApp Desktop within the Contact info and Group info section. The new section is titled Kept Messages and is located under the Starred messages option, according to a screenshot shared by WABetaInfo.

The new "Kept messages" section spotted on WhatsApp Desktop
Photo Credit: WABetaInfo

While the feature has been spotted on a beta version of WhatsApp Desktop, the feature is also expected to arrive on future versions of WhatsApp for Android and WhatsApp for iOS, according to the tracker. The company is also reportedly working on a way to identify which messages have been kept from a disappearing conversation, but WABetaInfo is yet to share details of how it will work. There is currently no word on when the ability to “keep” disappearing messages and the new Kept messages section will be rolled out to users, and the service is yet to officially announce any details of the feature that is currently in development.