Earlier this year, Facebook-owned company WhatsApp has rolled out Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for its 1.25 billion subscriber base. Instagram, which is also owned by the same parent company seems to be rolling out a similar feature in the coming months. Though this might be the UPI feature, reports indicate that this payment feature can also be utilised to shop in Instagram directly.
Instagram's supposedly new payment interface feature (Photo: TechCrunch)
As reported by folks at TechCrunch, this new payment feature allows users to purchase the items within the Instagram app, and for this, users need to register their debit or credit card in their profiles. For additional security, the registered profile can also be locked with a security pin. After setting up, this native payments feature can be used for booking appointments at restaurants or salons, which is also live for a limited set of partners.
Currently, a dinner reservation app named Resy is equipped with this new feature, where a user can book a table within the Instagram page of Resy. Few other pages are also expected to enable this in-app payment feature in some time soon. At present, this feature is currently available for select users in the US and UK.
Instagram's native booking feature (Photo: TechCrunch)
Instagram has announced earlier in March stating, "we’ll roll out the ability to book a service with a business directly from their profile later this year," but there wasn't any announcement regarding this native in-app payment feature back then.
Instagram's native booking feature (Photo: TechCrunch)
There are already an excessive number of brands, promoting their products on their respective pages on the Instagram app, adding this native in-app payment feature combined with in-app purchases can easily be more accessible and attractable for all the users. When this new feature gains attraction, this could give the current businesses a substantial reason to advertise more on this Facebook-owned company. We can expect users shopping more via Instagram, as this payments feature allows users shop without the need of leaving the app.
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