Whatsapp is launching a new feature that will let you pay friends & merchants from the app.

WhatsApp could go live with its much-awaited payments feature as early as next month, according to people aware of the developments, providing the biggest boost yet for digital payments in the country.

  

The most widely used messaging app in India is at various stages of integrating its Unified Payments Interface (UPI)- based payments platform with State Bank of IndiaBSE -2.67 %, ICICI BankBSE -0.23 %, HDFC BankBSE 1.29 % and Axis BankBSE 0.95 %, these people said.

"The platform is already in beta stage (testing) with one of its partner banks. We expect the product to go live for consumers by the end of February, depending on how the trials work out," one of them said.

A banker too confirmed that WhatsApp is at various stages of system integration with banks. "We are doing security checks to ensure safety of the data," the banker said. The final step following security checks in the integration process involves testing the product among select users before it can go live.

However, say there are various security concerns that need to be addressed before the integration, especially with regard to data of bank customers.