The WhatsApp green tick is now blue: verified badges explained

For years the mark of a verified business on WhatsApp was a green checkmark next to the business name. When Meta unified its verification badge across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the colour changed to blue. The badge does the same job; only the colour and the wider branding changed. So green tick and blue tick now refer to the same thing.

What the badge actually means

The badge marks an Official Business Account: Meta has reviewed the account and confirmed it belongs to a real, recognised business. With it, your business name shows to everyone, even people who have not saved your number, and customers can see at a glance that they are talking to the genuine brand and not an impersonator. It is a trust signal, not a way to access extra features.

Two ways to earn it

There are now two routes. The first is the free Official Business Account route, based on notability: your business has to be well known, which Meta judges partly from organic press coverage and public presence. This route is selective and the decision is entirely Meta's. The second is Meta Verified, a paid subscription that brings the badge along with extra protection and support, and which is available to a wider range of businesses, including smaller ones.

What you need either way

Both routes expect the basics in place: a business on the WhatsApp Business Platform through a provider, a verified Meta business account, two-step verification enabled, and an account in good standing. For the free notability route, building genuine public presence is the part most applications fail on.