This change was spotted in WhatsApp for Android’s latest beta and is still available in iOS and web clients. Instead of showing the last active status, WhatsApp replaced it with Business Account in that place.
Update For WhatsApp Businesses
After serving the general users, WhatsApp started helping businesses to interact with their clients lately. It has given such users a special business account status and is now planning to bring Shops soon. As the business marketplace is growing on the platform, WhatsApp has made a big change in the latest Android Beta, which is to hide or remove the online status for business accounts. This change was spotted in WhatsApp beta for Android 2.21.13.17, where the “online” or “last seen at..” status was removed and replaced by the “Business account” tag instead. This cannot be changed, or at least the cracker WaBetaInfo didn’t find a way. This news was initially reported by WaBetaInfo’s discord community, who found the change in the latest Android Beta, later tested by WaBetaInfo. While it’s gone in Android, it’s still available in iOS and Web clients. Removing this status option may make it harder for customers to interact, as that indirectly determines the active status, and reply frequency. Facebook has recently announced that it’s bringing a host of features and changes to all its social platforms, aimed at helping businesses. In this pursuit, WhatsApp will soon be getting Shops – a virtual marketplace for businesses that can sell goods online. They can list their items and receive payments from customers in WhatsApp, and process the service offline. Also, WhatsApp may bring other functionalities to promote businesses on the platform, thus earn from it indirectly.
