Telegram is attempting to compete with WhatsApp Business, which last year surpassed 200 million monthly active users as it launched its own “WHATSAPP BUSINESS” as a new in-app subscription.
In a statement on Thursday, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, revealed that users of the chat service with personal accounts may now change them to business accounts.
In 2018, WhatsApp launched its dedicated app, WhatsApp Corporate, in response to the increasing demand for corporate communication.
With the launch of Telegram Business, a suite of services designed specifically for businesses inside the current Telegram client, Telegram now appears to be following suit.
Using automatic welcomes or away messages, labelling conversations with colour, and creating shortcuts for fast responses are a few other options available to business account holders.
“Telegram Business accounts will be able to seamlessly add chatbots as their invisible secretaries to respond to all or certain chats. With AI, these chatbots can bring customer service automation to an entirely new level,” he said.
Telegram Business works as an integrated part of the current experience, unlike WhatsApp Business, which is a stand-alone app. This makes it unnecessary for companies to oversee several platforms and streamline operations related to communication.
Personalised customer messages and pathways for completing e-commerce transactions without leaving the app were among the many business-facing capabilities that Meta-owned WhatsApp unveiled last year.
As per the announcement, companies can avail of a cheaper annual option of €2.83 and subscribe for €4.49 per month to activate Telegram Business.
As an alternative, users can take advantage of the present feature in their current Telegram Premium memberships.
Durov had previously declared that the business would be releasing its advertising platform the following month, enabling channel owners to get paid.