New Delhi, Jun 2 (IANS): WhatsApp on Wednesday announced new features to help businesses chat with people with ease and grow further. The company said that it has cut down the time it takes for businesses to get up and running from weeks to just five minutes.

The Facebook-owned company said that it is also rolling out new messaging features that can help people get business done faster.

New list messages present a menu of up to 10 options so people no longer need to type out a response.

"Reply buttons will allow people to quickly make a selection from up to three options with just a quick tap that a business can set ahead of time through their WhatsApp Business API account," the company informed during the annual F8 conference in virtual avatar.

The company said that as always, people will remain in control of their chats.

"People still need to reach out to start a conversation or request a business contact them via WhatsApp. With these updates, we're also providing new ways for people to give greater feedback about the experience they are having if they have a reason to block a business,' WhatsApp said.

The company in April said that people can browse more than 8 million business catalogs on WhatsApp, including 1 million in India, to find something they might like to buy.

Over 50 million businesses and more than 175 million people message a WhatsApp Business account every day.

"We are excited that with the new easy on-boarding, more businesses will be able to benefit and find an efficient way to interact with their customers," said Ravi Sundararajan, COO of conversational messaging platform Gupshup.