ID R&D voice biometrics extend WhatsApp for Business capabilities with new partnership

ID R&D has launched in-app voice biometric authentication to WhatsApp for Business in collaboration with partner Wittybots by SimpleTech. The new solution enables businesses to extend their WhatsApp customer service channels to enable secure payments and other interactions with a short voice message.

SimpleTech’s Wittybots are a powerful software for RPA (robotic process automation) and conversation management, according to the announcement.

Extending the customer service capabilities of WhatsApp to include payments is the main motivation for the solution, an ID R&D representative told Biometric Update in an email. Other potentially risky interactions, however, like updating an address associated with a payment method or an account or accessing protected healthcare information, could also benefit from the increased security of voice recognition.

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app, with more than 1.5 billion users in 180 countries. WhatsApp Business API is used by companies in banking, insurance, healthcare and retail to answer customer inquiries, provide delivery updates, and send purchase receipts and boarding passes.

The partnership between ID R&D and SimpleTech brings two-factor authentication to WhatsApp, providing a way to confirm customer identities. Biometric enrollment takes 20 seconds, ID R&D says, after which matching is instant, and is further protected from spoofing by the company’s voice liveness algorithms.

“Our solution allows businesses to safely communicate with their customers via WhatsApp Business API,” comments ID R&D President Alexey Khitrov. “The unique combination of Wittybots by SimpleTECH and ID R&D’s voice biometrics gives businesses the ability to secure automated payments and more without the friction and vulnerability of passwords, PINs and another knowledge-based authentication.”

In addition to opening up opportunities in India and Africa for ID R&D, which already has several customers in those regions, the partnership gives Wittybots by SimpleTech a way to provide more functions for its customers through its chatbots.

ID R&D recently reported a spectacular growth year for its biometric authentication and liveness detection products in 2020.

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometric liveness detection  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  ID R&D  |  identity verification  |  secure transactions  |  voice biometrics  |  voice recognition  |  WhatsApp