WhatsApp will soon support your Novi digital wallet
It seems like lately, WhatsApp is always working on adding new features to the platform, and the team over at XDA Developers has just come across some new code in the latest app beta, which reveals the messaging platform will likely rather soon be adding the ability to integrate your Novi digital wallet to make international transfers.
Novi is one of the newest digital wallets out there, announced at the end of last year and just launched this October by WhatsApp's own parent company, Facebook. It currently works with sending USDP Stablecoin (Pax Dollars, which are backed one-to-one to USD) internationally. Right now it's only available in the United States, however, as well as Guatemala (albeit on a waitlist).
This seems to be part of Facebook's whole "Meta" rebranding, as the company is striving to bring all of its services under a single recognizable roof and create something of a mini-ecosystem, along with a unified payment system and financial services—all of which is to be tied into the Novi digital wallet.
Facebook once had grander plans for Novi, hoping its own Facebook-backed digital currency (originally "Calibro," then renamed "Libra," which eventually became "Diem") would someday become the main currency used by Novi. Diem was supposed to launch in 2021, but has faced some powerful opposition and lost a number of key backers in the process. We have yet to see a development there.
The Novi integration could be great news for regular WhatsApp users who need to make the occasional international transfer, whether it's parents helping out their children studying abroad, or lending a helping hand to a friend—as long as they use Pax Dollars, that is, or potentially Diem one day (which will have a long ways to if it ever catches on, to say the least.)
The integration of the Novi Wallet into WhatsApp may take place in a future update, as XDA's APK teardown in the WhatsApp 2.21.23.10 beta revealed—however, we still don't know when exactly it will happen. Their findings also show that once Novi becomes available on WhatsApp, users will have to submit a video selfie to verify their identity, along with the necessary documents.
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