WhatsApp India head Kunal Shah lists three priorities to make ‘connections richer’, conversations ‘more expressive’
WhatsApp India head Kunal Shah has set his priorities with the aim of making "connections richer". He took to X on Tuesday to reveal his strategy for enhancing the user experience on the messaging platform.
CEO Kunal Shah said WhatsApp will focus on making connections richer, letting users complete tasks such as paying bills within chats and using AI to improve efficiency, while keeping personal messages and calls end-to-end encrypted.
Shah, who took charge of the Meta-owned messaging platform in June this year, said he has spent the last few months listening to users and understanding what they wanted from WhatsApp.
"...What I heard is simple: help people stay close to those who matter to them, and get more done on WhatsApp. So that's what we'll build," he said in the post on X.
Shah said, "First, we want to make connections richer."
"Sometimes hearing someone's voice, sending a joke, agreeing on a plan or knowing they're safe is the whole point. As the way people communicate evolves, we will evolve these experiences with them. We'll make voice notes, groups, stickers and video simpler and more expressive, because how people feel close keeps changing," he said.
On the second priority, Shah said too many tasks start in a chat and then need several more steps elsewhere, such as paying a bill, borrowing money or staying connected while travelling.
Noting that each handoff to another task costs time, Shah said WhatsApp is working with financial services and telecom partners so that "finishing something feels as easy as starting it".
The third focus area would be artificial intelligence (AI), which Shah said should quietly find what users need, get things done and make sure they never miss a booking or an appointment.
"The best technology saves you time, so you can get back to the connections that matter," he said.
Shah said WhatsApp handles over 100 billion messages and 2 billion calls every day, and that the platform must remain simple, reliable and private.
"Trust takes years to earn and a moment to lose, and I don't take that lightly," he said, adding that personal messages and calls would stay end-to-end encrypted and the quality bar would not change.
Meta appointed Shah, the founder of fintech platform CRED, as WhatsApp's global head in June. He succeeded Will Cathcart, who had led WhatsApp since 2019.
As part of the move, Meta led a funding round of about ₹8,550 crore (about USD 900 million) in CRED, which placed the Bengaluru-headquartered firm at a valuation of ₹43,239 crore (USD 4.5 billion).
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