From the time it first became available in 2009 until 2015, WhatsApp required its users to pay a yearly subscription fee of $1. Since that time, the service has been provided at no cost; nevertheless, there have been rumors circulating in recent weeks that the business controlled by Meta is about to start charging again; this information has just been verified in the last few hours. The update is a reaction to a shift in the way the firm does its business, although not all customers will be affected by it. The WhatsApp Business program, which is geared at commercial usage, will be the primary target of the charge.

It is now free for small companies to utilize WhatsApp Business, but the company does charge a fee for the usage of its application programming interface (API), which is designed for managing accounts that get a lot of messages. WhatsApp Business was established for this purpose.

However, in the most recent Beta release, a new payment option was created. This new payment option aims to give the benefits of the corporate version at a more reasonable price.

What is WhatsApp Premium?

As reported by WABetaInfo, the new trial version of the messaging platform will launch WhatsApp Premium, a subscription service that seeks to offer advantages in terms of productivity for WhatsApp Business users.

Until now, WhatsApp Business did not offer exaggerated differences concerning the “normal” application, although it does have certain exclusive tools that facilitate the administration of the account by companies. For example, it allows you to create automatic responses, keep a product catalog updated or create a complete business profile, among other options.

The leak explains that this new special version of the app will have the possibility of generating a link through which you can chat directly with companies.

It will also be allowed to link up to 10 devices with the same WhatsApp account, both on cell phones and computers.

In any case, the launch date of this new WhatsApp Business update was not announced, since at the moment it is in the process of development. The price of the subscription is also not known, but it is estimated that it will have an affordable price.