WhatsApp has been working to improve its instant messaging platform by making it usable across multiple devices at once. The company, owned by Meta, has been trying to achieve this goal for a few years and has made significant progress. Initially, it created a web interface that was followed by the ability to use accounts with secondary devices. Recently, WhatsApp multi-device support was expanded to allow users to link as many additional smartphones as they want to their account, in addition to the primary device and up to four other linked devices.
WhatsApp had to completely redesign its underlying architecture to allow a smartphone to be one of the four linked devices per account. Beta users were initially limited to using just one smartphone as a linked device, in addition to their primary handset. While workarounds using Companion mode designed for tablets were used with some success, the removal of this limitation has been a long time coming.
WhatsApp recently removed this limitation for all beta users, and now stable channel users can also benefit from the convenience of using one WhatsApp account on any combination of smartphones, computers, and Android tablets. However, there are still two quirks: users can only have four linked devices, and none of them can be an iPad. While there’s no native iPad app support, users can use a web login on the tablet’s browser as a workaround.
With the redesigned architecture, every linked device communicates with WhatsApp servers independently to keep chats synced. This also means that the primary smartphone needs to come online at least once every 30 days to keep the linked devices operational, but can remain switched off otherwise. Meta promises that end-to-end encryption remains available, regardless of which device is used to access an account.
This new development should be incredibly useful for anyone who juggles multiple smartphones, especially those who want all their devices to access the same WhatsApp account. Multi-device support combined with self-messaging is also handy for transferring files between linked devices. Small businesses could also benefit from this feature as team members can use the same WhatsApp Business account to tackle multiple customer queries simultaneously.
Meta has also announced a new QR-free way to link new devices to your account, which will be rolled out in the coming weeks. While multi-phone support is already being rolled out, users will have to get used to the fact that linked smartphones don’t work exactly like the primary one.
Summary:
- WhatsApp now allows users to link as many additional smartphones as they want to their account, in addition to the primary device and up to four other linked devices.
- The primary smartphone needs to come online at least once every 30 days to keep the linked devices operational but can remain switched off otherwise.
- End-to-end encryption remains available, regardless of which device is used to access an account.
- Small businesses could benefit from this feature as team members can use the same WhatsApp Business account to tackle multiple customer queries simultaneously.
- A new QR-free way to link new devices to your account will be rolled out in the coming weeks.