WhatsApp may add support for multiple device sign-in soon, fixing one of the most annoying aspects of the otherwise excellent ubiquitous messaging service. Currently, only one registered device can send and receive WhatsApp messages, and users’ accounts are linked to a mobile number.
According to a report in WABetaInfo, the latest WhatsApp Android beta 2.20.110 includes an option to add extra devices to your account:
Testing ? When someone adds a new device in his WhatsApp account, you will be notified because encryption keys change. Available in future for iOS and Android! pic.twitter.com/WqrM6cRHWW
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 24, 2020
The above images show a new ‘device list’ change message in chats that signals a change in encryption keys. Currently, a different message appears to notify people in the chat of someone’s security code changing, which means they’ve moved their one WhatsApp login to another device.
Allow us, if you will, a moment of introspection. You may be reading this not even thinking that this is a sought after feature – but in the world of the tech journalist who reviews phones frequently, this would be a godsend. Here at Tech Advisor we constantly lament the faff of moving WhatsApp logins between review devices.
The same will apply to you if you own more than one smartphone and don’t like only getting WhatsApp messages to one of them.
You can back up WhatsApp accounts to either Google Drive or iCloud depending on your device, but there’s no official way to move WhatsApp messages between iPhone and Android. For the more OCD amongst us, not having our messages on a new review phone can be anxiety inducing, or just a plain pain in the you-know-what.
Even from Android phone to Android phone, for example, the hassle of backing up chats, moving your SIM card to a new phone and then logging into WhatsApp with a texted verification code and then installing the backup is a slog. A multi-device sign-in feature would hopefully bypass this and let you run your messages across several devices like you can with internet messaging services like Facebook Messenger.
The report from WABetaInfo also says disappearing messages will be coming to future versions of WhatsApp, and that videos uploaded to WhatsApp statuses will be limited to 15 seconds. We’d forgotten you could even upload a WhatsApp status, to be honest.
WhatsApp has a new feature! Here’s how to use disappearing messages.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.