Heres how you can transfer money using this app

Facebook-owned WhatsApp earlier this week started testing peer-to-peer payment service in India. Unlike Hike Wallet and Paytm Wallet, WhatsApp lets you send and receive money via the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) platform. Only a small group of users in India have the payment feature enabled on their WhatsApp app right now.

The company says it will be rolling it out to the general public in the coming weeks. But if you don’t wish to wait that longer, there is a workaround to speed up the process. Much like the way WhatsApp rolled out the voice calling feature to users, the payment feature can also be distributed by people who already have the invitation. If you have a friend who already has the UPI feature enabled on their phone, you can ask them to seed the feature to you.

Here’s the step-by-step guide on what they have to do to enable WhatsApp UPI feature on your phone:

1. Users who already have the feature need to go to their friend’s profile on WhatsApp.
2. Once there, they simply need to tap the attachment (paper clip-shaped) button.
3. This will prompt them to see the payment option. They need to tap the payment option.
4. This will give them an error, saying that their friend doesn’t have WhatsApp UPI feature just yet. But in reality, they have just enabled the WhatsApp UPI feature for their friend.
5. Now, you can go to the settings section within the app where you will see the payment option yourself.
6. You can now invite your friends in a similar fashion.

Note that WhatsApp hasn’t officially rolled out the feature for everyone yet. But considering that it has already made its way to the recent beta versions for both iOS and Android, the feature is most likely to be announced very soon. Analysts say WhatsApp enabling UPI feature could be the biggest boost to the digital payment landscape in India. Ahead of WhatsApp’s payment service, the popular digital wallet platform Paytm introduced a messaging service on its platform. Called Paytm Inbox, the messaging service is similar to WhatsApp’s and also lets users send and receive money.

Apart from Paytm, Hike and Truecaller have also introduced peer-to-peer money sharing feature on their platforms. Google late last year joined the mobile commerce segment with Google, which also lets you make and request payments vis-a-vis friends. Google in December last year revealed the platform had gone past 140 million transactions, and has over 12 million monthly active users. WhatsApp, however, has an upper hand over the competition considering the massive user base in the country. The platform has more than 200 million users in India, one of its biggest markets in the world. The peer-to-peer payment service comes shortly after WhatsApp launched a dedicated application for business users in the country. Called WhatsApp Business, the application makes it easier for businesses to connect with customers and vice versa.