A birth certificate that once took weeks to access can now be downloaded in seconds in certain states, directly within a WhatsApp chat. In India, accessing government services has traditionally meant navigating multiple websites or downloading a range of standalone apps, often with varying levels of usability. Increasingly, that journey is being simplified as services begin to appear on WhatsApp, an app people already use daily.
The Meta-owned messaging platform is working with several state governments across regions to roll out chat-based services that allow citizens to complete everyday tasks, from accessing documents to finding information, without needing to step outside a familiar environment.
Ravi Garg, director of business messaging at Meta India, and his team have been driving this initiative. In states such as Andhra Pradesh, the success rate has been particularly high. The broader shift reflects something more fundamental. As digital adoption deepens, platforms that began as tools for conversation are starting to take on a more expansive role. In some ways, India is turning a familiar messaging app into an access layer for essential services.
What began as a way to stay connected is now evolving into a wider digital ecosystem, where accessing government support can feel as intuitive as sending a message to a family member.
Garg spoke to t2oS recently to talk about how this evolution is taking place at WhatsApp.
Ravi Garg, director of business messaging, Meta India
How has WhatsApp simplified access to critical services over the last few years?
What began as a platform for conversations with friends and family now enables a comprehensive digital ecosystem. People on WhatsApp seamlessly send money, settle utility bills, book tickets, buy insurance, open bank FDs and much more, all without leaving their chat window.
A couple of years ago, we identified a significant opportunity to extend this further into citizen services. While the government has invested heavily in digital infrastructure, building feature-rich websites and mobile apps, public adoption has often been slow. We saw WhatsApp as the ideal bridge to close that gap, serving as a familiar digital interface for the government to deliver services directly to the public.
Could you provide some specific examples of this in action?
Public transport is one example of how simple, everyday services can be made more accessible. In Delhi, for instance, commuters can now book a ticket from anywhere in under 30 seconds at the click of a button, completely bypassing physical queues.
The scale of success has been remarkable, with around seven million tickets sold every month across seven major metro networks nationwide.
Monthly bill payments for water, electricity, and gas are another example. While these tasks can often be cumbersome, we have collaborated with utility companies to make the process seamless. Users can now settle their accounts entirely within the WhatsApp chat.
Perhaps, most importantly, we are facilitating access to vital documents like birth, revenue and other key certificates. During our engagements with various state governments, it became clear that obtaining these records was often a struggle, sometimes taking weeks or months. By working with states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu, we have made it possible to download these certificates in a few simple steps.
How is your collaboration with the government of Bengal progressing?
We are seeing strong interest from multiple states that are keen to simplify citizen service delivery through a familiar, chat-based interface. Our approach is to collaborate closely with governments across the country, supporting them with a tech infrastructure that helps them bring all citizen services under a single platform.
Can you elaborate on your experiences with other state governments?
The Mana Mitra chatbot, first state specific citizen services chatbot to go live, for the people in Andhra Pradesh, is a standout success story. It started with 150 services, and that number has now grown to over 850 services, delivering more than 25 million services to over five million users. Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu truly embraced the “governance by WhatsApp” philosophy.
For instance, during Class XII exams, distributing hall tickets was a major logistical challenge. Ninety-five per cent of those hall tickets were downloaded via WhatsApp, reaching even the most remote areas. Similarly, during Cyclone Montha, the platform proved invaluable, enabling the government to send over 10 million emergency alerts and resolve more than 25,000 citizen grievances in real time.
Was there a particular service that exceeded your expectations or perhaps surprised you?
It has been a journey of both surprises and learnings. One of the key opportunities we recognised early on is that citizens often have to navigate multiple departments and portals to access different services. What WhatsApp enables is a single, unified interface that brings all of these services together in one place, eliminating the need to visit multiple websites or applications. This consolidation has been transformative for the citizen experience.
Some states have been particularly forward-thinking in building streamlined backend integrations, which has made it even easier to deliver high-quality services at scale. These partnerships have reinforced a key belief for us, that making access easier for the citizen also creates a powerful opportunity for governments to deliver all their services through a single, cohesive platform.
How challenging is it to include tier-2 and tier-3 cities, particularly given the linguistic diversity involved?
If this initiative does not work for tier-2 and tier-3 cities, it loses its primary value. To address this, we adopt a language-first approach. In many cases, we develop solutions in the local language from the outset rather than starting with English. The real differentiator in these regions is voice technology.
A large segment of the population may not feel comfortable typing long messages or navigating complex forms. Voice notes allow for a much more natural interaction; AI then processes these requests to deliver the service. If a user needs a certificate, the system can simply prompt them for their name or date of birth via voice, making the technology truly accessible.
Security is a common concern. Are users genuinely comfortable using the platform for sensitive services?
For hundreds of millions of Indians, the platform already feels like a natural extension of daily life, and that familiarity carries over when they use it to access government services. All conversations are secure and protected and our networks undergo rigorous audits and certifications to ensure full compliance. We apply these same stringent principles to business and government interactions.
When a citizen accesses and downloads some documents via these chatbots, the process is entirely secure as that data exists only between the government and the individual’s device. WhatsApp does not access or read that information.