WhatsApp for Business Gets Third Party Voice Authentication

Biometric solutions provider ID R&D and Wittybots by SimpleTech, a robotic process automation (RPA) and conversation management platform, have announced the launch of the first in-app voice biometrics authentication solution for WhatsApp for Business.

The new feature means that businesses that choose to use it can have a customer authenticate their identity by simply tapping the microphone button and recording a short voice message that is then sent for authentication.

The remote authentication industry has been experiencing a surge in popularity over the past several months due in large part to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the various measures that have been put in to place to slow the spread of the virus. Though necessary, these measures have led to an increase in the need for secure remote authentication due to the growth in online traffic as more people are working from home while also generally spending more time online.

The WhatsApp Business API is used by companies to do things like answer questions, send delivery updates, provide receipts, and send boarding passes to customers, and is relied upon by a number of enterprises in the banking, insurance, healthcare, and retail markets. Because the API doesn’t have its own way of authenticating a customer’s identity, SimpleTech and ID R&D have attempted to fulfil that need by developing their solution. Enrollment takes 20 seconds to complete, and is done by having users send a voice passphrase within WhatsApp that is stored securely.

Whenever the customer uses their voice to verify their identity, the new recording they create is matched against the one stored from their enrollment and checked for authenticity using ID R&D’s algorithms.

“Our solution allows businesses to safely communicate with their customers via WhatsApp Business API,” said Alexey Khitrov, President ID R&D. “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 September of 2020, ID R&D announced the availability of its AI-based voice biometrics solutions on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, meaning that Microsoft Azure customers around the world are now able to access ID R&D’s offerings while being able to evaluate and deploy them at scale in a cloud-based environment.

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(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)