Facebook-owned WhatsApp is bringing out a new feature that would allow users to access their WhatsApp account from multiple devices. The new feature was announced by the Head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, who said that new capabilities would be added to the messaging service that would “make the experience better for people who use desktop/web and Portal”. “It also will make it possible to add support for more kinds of devices over time,” he tweeted on Thursday.
We've been working on this for a long time. Until now, @WhatsApp has only been available on one device at a time. And desktop and web support only worked by mirroring off your phone – which meant your phone had to be on and have an active internet connection.
— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) July 14, 2021
Currently, WhatsApp allows its users to access their accounts from only one device at a time. While it is possible to access the messaging app on the desktop or laptop using the ‘WhatsApp Web’ feature, however, in this case, the smartphone remains the primary device. If the phone’s battery dies or it loses the internet connection, the user is no longer able to access WhatsApp on the other device.
This will change with the new multi-device capability feature that is currently under beta testing. It will allow users to access their messages on four other non-phone devices apart from their smartphones. The connections will remain independent from the phone, meaning even if the phone is inactive, WhatsApp would continue to work on the other devices.
According to Will, the company developed new technologies that “maintain end-to-end encryption while keeping your data in sync — message history, contact names, starred messages, and more — seamlessly across devices.”
WhatsApp is currently testing the feature through a limited public beta test. Users will be allowed to access it in the future through the join beta option in ‘Linked devices’.
