What WhatsApp is and how it works: the personal app explained

Doña Rosa bakes custom cakes at home. Her customers write to the same WhatsApp where she has the family group, the kids’ school group and the chat with her sister. One Saturday she missed an order for 40 slices among the voice notes in the family group. Was WhatsApp the problem? No: the problem was using the wrong version of WhatsApp.

Before choosing how to serve your customers, it helps to understand exactly what the app we all have on our phones is.

What is WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is Meta’s personal messaging app, free and with end-to-end encryption. According to WhatsApp’s official site, more than 3 billion people in over 180 countries use it to talk with friends, family and also businesses.

It is the version you download as plain “WhatsApp”, the green one with the white phone. It needs no email or password: your account is your phone number.

How does WhatsApp work?

WhatsApp sends your messages and calls over the internet, using Wi-Fi or your plan’s data, instead of charging you like an SMS. That is why the app is free, although your carrier may charge for data if you aren’t on Wi-Fi.

Every message travels with end-to-end encryption: only the sender and the recipient can read it. WhatsApp explains in its official comparison between versions that it uses the Signal encryption protocol, the same one that protects chats with businesses.

What can you do with WhatsApp?

With the personal app you can send messages, make voice and video calls, and create groups, channels and status updates. These are its main features according to WhatsApp:

Feature	What it is for
Messages	Text, photos, videos, documents and location
Calls	Encrypted voice and video calls
Groups	Conversations with several people at once
Channels	One-way broadcasts to many followers
Status	Photos, videos or text shown for 24 hours

If you’re wondering which of these spaces works for a business, we explain it in group, community or channel: which one to use for selling.

Does personal WhatsApp work for a business?

It works to get started, but it falls short as soon as you have real customers. The personal app has no business profile, catalog, greeting messages, quick replies or labels to organize chats. Nor does it connect to a CRM or let several agents handle the same number.

Watch out: mixing customers with personal chats is the fastest way to lose orders. There is no way to know which customer is waiting for a reply, and if you change or break your phone, the whole operation depends on that device.

What other versions of WhatsApp are there?

Besides the personal app, Meta offers two products for businesses: the WhatsApp Business app and the WhatsApp Business Platform, known as the API. And between the two there is a bridge called coexistence:

• WhatsApp Business (app): free, for small businesses, with a business profile, catalog and automated messages. We explain it in what the WhatsApp Business app is.
• WhatsApp Business API: for companies that need several agents, automation and integration with their CRM. We detail it in what the WhatsApp Business API is.
• Coexistence: connects the number you already use in the app to the API, without leaving the app. It’s covered in WhatsApp coexistence.

If you want to see them side by side, check the differences between the 4 versions of WhatsApp.

When should you leave personal WhatsApp for a business version?

The time is when customers start getting lost among your personal chats. Some clear signs:

• New customers write to you every day and some go unanswered.
• You repeat the same answers (prices, hours, address) several times a day.
• You want someone else to help you reply from the same number.
• You need to know how many sales come from WhatsApp.

If one or two of these apply, the WhatsApp Business app is the next step. If all of them do, it’s worth looking straight at the API and a CRM; at tumarcaviral.com we help you implement the official WhatsApp API.

In short

WhatsApp is a great app for personal life: free, secure and with more than 3 billion users. But it wasn’t made for selling. If Doña Rosa moves her business to WhatsApp Business, the 40-slice order won’t get lost among the family voice notes again.