New Delhi, November 5: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has given its approval for WhatsApp to 'Go Live' on UPI in a graded manner in a multi-bank model. The notification by the NPCI states that WhatsApp, the  Facebook-owned company can expands its UPI user base in a graded manner starting with a maximum registered user base of 20 million on UPI. The announcement came minutes after the NCPI limited a single third party like WhatsApp or its rivals like Google Pay or PhonePe to handle only 30 percent of overall UPI transaction volumes by putting a cap. Here's the notification by NCPI.

As of May 2020, WhatsApp has 400 million users in India while other Third Party App Providers (TPAPs) including Google Pay had 75 million and PhonePe had 60 million. Reports inform that WhatsApp had been running a pilot service for the last two years but was not given a go-ahead due to data localisation requirements.

NPCI has been incorporated in 2008 as an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. It has created a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in the country and has changed the way payments are made in India through a slew of retail payment products such as RuPay card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), BHIM Aadhaar, National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC Fastag) and Bharat BillPay.

On Thursday, WhatsApp said it is introducing 'disappearing messages' feature on its platform that will allow new messages sent to a chat to disappear after seven days. The feature will be rolled out to all users this month. The firm said their goal is "to make conversations on WhatsApp feel as close to in-person as possible, which means they shouldn't have to stick around forever".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 05, 2020 09:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).