By now, we already know that you can use WhatsApp on more than one device, and up to four devices under the same account.
The feature is available for beta users, but we are certain it will expand to the rest of the users in the coming days.
It should be noted that this is a big deal for many people because other messaging platforms have been doing this for a long time, including the likes of Telegram that is also WhatsApp’s primary rival.
However, the chats are not cloud-based per se as the case with Telegram (more of that in a second), but they are end-to-end encrypted.
Here is how to sign-up for multi-device use:
- Open the WhatsApp app on your phone.
- Click on the menu button (three dots at the top right).
- Click on Linked Devices.
- Then tap Multi-device beta, then Join Beta.
- Joining beta will see your account unlinked from other connected devices.
- Click on Continue to join multi-device beta.
- After that, you can link a new device to your WhatsApp account by selecting the Link a device button.
- Prior to doing so, open web.whatsapp.com on the target phone or device.
- Then authenticate the exercise using your biometrics or QR code reader to scan the code from WhatsApp Web on the target phone.
- Your target device should now be linked to your WhatsApp account.
Note that the linked device does not need a constant connection to your primary phone for it to work.
Now, the big question is whether you can use this feature on more than one phone.
The answer is no. Listen: we know it is a limitation because you will have to register new devices with your smartphone in the same manner people have been linking their WhatsApp to the web.
The only key development here is that you do not need to keep a constant connection for the linked devices to work.
Also, you need to use WhatsApp constantly on your smartphone, else the linked devices will be logged out after two weeks.
We understand that there are people out there that have more than one phone or change their devices constantly. These are the groups that would have benefitted from a cloud-based chatting feature that we have come to appreciate on Telegram.
Nevertheless, baby steps. Who knows, maybe WhatsApp will catch up in the coming days.
