Apply for a Green Tick
Learn more about WhatsApp Official Business Accounts and how to apply to become one
If your WhatsApp account is an official business account, there will be a green checkmark beside the displayed name in the contacts view. This goes to show WhatsApp has verified that an authentic, notable brand owns this account.
Eligibility Criteria
The criteria for WhatsApp Official Business Accounts (OBA) is based on a number of factors and is different from policies on other platforms. In addition to following WhatsApp's Commerce and Business Policies, businesses need to be:
Notable: Represents a well-known business, often searched brand or entity
Verified: Has gone through Business Verification, and
2FA: Has set up two-step verification. (Gets enabled when you connect your WhatsApp to MyAlice)
Understanding Notability
Notability requires a business to represent a well-known, often searched brand or entity. This should not be taken as a signal of the authenticity of the business.
Notability, on the other hand, reflects substantial presence in online news articles. Notability is assessed based on an account’s presence in news articles from publications with sizable audiences. WhatsApp does not consider paid or promotional content as sources for review, including business or app listings.
Official business accounts are issued at the phone number and display name level. WhatsApp assesses notability for the Display Name of the business account that is requesting OBA status —If the display name is changed after receiving the OBA status, we will need to re-assess the new display name for notability and display name compliance.
Additionally, previous OBA approvals within a WhatsApp Business Account do not guarantee approval for other numbers (with different display names) associated with that account. If your WABA contains one main parent brand and the phone number associated with that brand meets notability requirements, WhatsApp suggests updating the display names for the child brands as follows: '{{sub-brand name}} by {{notable name}}'.
Requesting an Official Business Account
You can reach out to our support or your dedicated success manager to submit the request
Follow these instructions to request an official business account:
Access WhatsApp Manager from your Business Manager. Click on the phone number for which you want to request OBA within the Overview section
Click on Submit Request Button and fill out the required information.
You can submit up to 5 supporting links especially from renowned publications (e.g., India Today, Economic times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Wikipedia, Business Insider) to show that the business is notable, which helps us determine notability.
Fields like Country(s) of operation, parent business or brand (esp. if it is a well known brand) and Primary language helps us to further understand your brand and eligibility for OBA.
Once WhatsApp has reviewed your request, you will receive a notification letting you know if your account has been granted OBA or not. If your request is rejected, you can submit a new request after 30 days.
Denied Requests
If your OBA request has been denied, it means our team has carefully reviewed your account, and unfortunately, your account is not eligible for the OBA status at this time. Currently, these decisions cannot be appealed.
Businesses can continue to grow their presence and wait 30 days before submitting another Official Business Account request. It may take time to build the business's presence in news articles as described above.
In the meantime, this decision does not limit your ability to share your business details. Each phone number also has a business profile which includes the profile picture, email, website, and business description. These are fields that you can edit at any time. You can continue to connect with and grow your customer reach on WhatsApp.
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