Meta has announced its rollout of Meta Verified program for WhatsApp users in India and other countries.

“When you see a Meta Verified badge, this means a business has registered their information with Meta,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed. Subscription plans start at $14 a month.

Meta launched its verification program for creators in March 2023 and extended it to businesses in September 2023. However, the program was limited to Facebook and Instagram until now.

The company has confirmed that merchants who subscribe to the plan on WhatsApp will get a badge and impersonation protection after sharing their business deals with the company. This comes with numerous additional benefits: they will receive a verified WhatsApp channel for their marketing; will be allowed to use their WhatsApp Business account from multiple devices; and will be able to create a custom web page with their business details that they can share with customers or vendors.

Meta is also introducing new abilities for its users, such as the capability to call large businesses using WhatsApp through APIs such as banks or airlines. This will work like calling a customer support number through the app, a significant improvement over Business users having to use their personal phone numbers to service customer calls. Meta has confirmed that they will charge companies but this, but haven’t revealed pricing details for this yet.

Other countries where Meta Verified has been rolled out include Brazil, Indonesia and Cambodia. It will eventually roll out to others as well.