About chatting with businesses
It’s easy to distinguish between a personal account and a business account on WhatsApp. In an individual chat, tap the contact’s name to view their profile. If they’re a business, their profile will include one of the following labels:
- Official business account: WhatsApp has determined that a notable and authentic brand owns this account. An "Official business account" has a green checkmark badge in its profile and next to the header in the chat thread. The name of the business is visible even if you haven't added the business to your address book.
- Business account: This is the default status for a business that creates an account on one of the WhatsApp Business products.
Note: An "Official business account" does not indicate that WhatsApp endorses this business.
Why am I seeing a new system message in my WhatsApp chats?
Some businesses you chat with on WhatsApp may choose to use Facebook or another company to help them manage and store their messages.
You’ll see the following messages, when a business chooses to:
- Use a partner: You’ll see “This business works with other companies to manage this chat.”
- Use Facebook’s Hosting Services: You’ll see “This business uses a secure service from the Facebook company to manage this chat.”
If a business is managing their chats by themselves, you’ll see: “Messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted. No one outside of this chat, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to them.”
Even if a business chooses to use Facebook to host their messages, Facebook will not automatically use your messages to inform the ads that you see. Just like with any other communication channel, like call centers or email, businesses are able to use interactions with customers for their own marketing purposes, which may include advertising on Facebook or elsewhere. You can always contact a business to learn more about its privacy practices.
If you don’t want to receive messages from a business, you can block them directly from the chat, or delete them from your contact list.
Always private and secure
Every WhatsApp message is protected by the same Signal encryption protocol that secures messages before they leave your device. When you message a WhatsApp business account, your message is delivered securely to the destination chosen by the business.