WhatsApp on multiple phones feature added
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
(web vs app workaround are clearly not the right way to go)
And, honestly, if bots and spam is what they were really worried about, allowing "two numbers" instead of just one would already be plenty for 99.999% of people that would gladly avoid carrying to devices (typically, personal and work)
edit: I am stupid, as the latest feature actually allows this workaround to become a permanent solution...
p.s. also, this feature is Android only, I think.
Yes, it's Android. Not surprised that it doesn't work on iOS.
If you sync contacts into work mode, it should work.
Is that specific to some Android device manufacturer? I have a dual SIM Android phone with two SIMs, and I don't see that option.
On Pixel phones and other devices which don't support Dual Apps, you can create a "Work Profile". It is a completely isolated section of your phone and you can install another copy of Whatsapp by opening the playstore in your work profile.
https://support.google.com/work/android/answer/6191949?hl=en
Still annoying though.
I expect they already have a solution that is plenty for 99.999% of people.
I wish Whatsapp Business actually allow Multiple Numbers with Subscriptions. Still dont understand why Meta dont monetise it. I have been send emails begging for them to charge me for certain business features.
Our phones now have so much critical stuff that being able to have a backup for more dangerous situations without losing contact with everyone is very important.
In dangerous places like Brazil, it stresses me to no end to go to some places or events (concerts, football matches, street fairs and events) with my phone that has all my banking information, email, access to my files, etc.
Currently the only thing that really prevents me from just using an old backup phone for this is that you can't have WhatsApp in 2 phones, so you end up having to resort to "ancient" (just kidding) ways like calls and SMS. Unfortunately, a lot of people (at least in Latin America or from here) basically only use WhatsApp nowadays.
My current solution was to have a second SIM card with a second WhatsApp account, which at least allowed me to message people in my contact list. With the amount of scams, though, a lot of my friends do not trust this unless I personally meet then and tell them to add the second contact.
Might seem like a small issue, but for me this will be a huge help. I leave my phone with all those annoying apps that use it as 2FA, banks and everything in hour and use a strip down version to go around.
Multi-phone is a nice feature though, it's something I like about Telegram, Wire, and Session. It would be nice if Signal had this feature but I would prefer accounts without a telephone number or email address (like Session) first.
Whatsapp breaking its one-phone assumption must have been hard, but they'd managed to do a web version, so some intermediate kludgy solution was probably feasible sooner. Maybe it was de-prioritised or decided against.
IRC and XMPP are nice but do not do ee2e by default.
WhatsApp is facebook's chat feature, not an open standard, never mind privacy.
> WhatsApp users are getting a long-requested feature: access to the same account across multiple cellphones.
This has been supported by Signal for years by linking devices. You can have the same Signal account on the primary phone (the one you verified through SMS OTP), a tablet and/or a desktop or other device. Messages (and message read statuses) get synced across devices.
Open Signal, go to Settings, then to “Linked Devices” and then choose “Link a New Device” to set it up. And unlike the previous WhatsApp desktop solution, Signal doesn’t (and did not) have the requirement to have the primary phone close by to act as a proxy. You can leave your primary phone anywhere (like on some other network or offline) and still have the linked devices work fine.
Apart from the primary phone, the remaining linked devices cannot be a phone. I eagerly wish this was possible.