The developers behind WhatsApp have given it a steady supply of updates and upgrades over the years, and one of the features recently added to the messaging app is one that we’ve been neglecting. now with other chat tools: The ability to sync conversations and accounts between. many smartphones.
Previously, your WhatsApp account was tied to the number registered to the phone you used it with. It confirms that you are who you say you are (at least FOR the most part), but it also means that you cannot retrieve your chats from another smartphone with another number attached to it.
Within a few years, it is possible to link up to four additional devices on the same WhatsApp account—and for devices that can access your recent chats, more send and receive end-to-end encrypted messages. Some features, such as live locations and status updates, are not accessible on these linked devices, however.
Until now, linked devices had to be Android tablets or computers using the web or desktop WhatsApp clients. now, however, you can add more smartphones. As before, everything remains end-to-end encrypted, and the phone you first set up your WhatsApp account with doesn’t need to be turned on.
It’s incredibly handy if you have more than one phone—a personal and a work phone, say—and want to use the same WhatsApp account on both of them. It also helps to manage WhatsApp accounts for businesses, as multiple people can sign into the same group of WhatsApp chats on different phones.
Add a second phone to WhatsApp
We assume you are running WhatsApp on a phone, and you are ready to add a second. This additional phone may run the same mobile operating system as the original phone, but it doesn’t have to—you can set up an Android phone to work on an iPhone, or vice versa.
Install WhatsApp for Android or iOS on the second phone, then agree to the terms and conditions of use, but do not enter a phone number. Instead, tap the three dots in the upper left corner and then Link to existing account (Android), or select Link this device to an existing account (iOS). You will be shown a QR code, which must be scanned on your primary phone.
If your primary phone is an Android device, tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the conversation list, and select Connected devices, THEN Link a device. If your primary phone is an iPhone, tap SettingsTHEN Connected Devices and Link a Device. You can scan the QR code on your secondary phone, and after a few seconds, all your new chats should start syncing.
Like something like Facebook Messenger or Google Chat, the chat experience syncs seamlessly across both phones—both phones ping when you get a new message, both phone will show both read and unread indicators, etc. You can compose and send new messages from either phone, and they will appear on the other, too.
Adding other devices to WhatsApp
The process is very similar for adding other devices as well. To seeg to WhatsApp on the web and WhatsApp desktop clients, for example, the QR code you need is shown when you open the page, so you can just scan it with your main phone like before. Note that you can log out of linked devices, which your primary device cannot.
As we said, there are some restrictions on what your linked devices can do, but they are minimal. For example, you won’t get your entire message history synced, so if you need to go back as far as your WhatsApp messages, you’ll have to go back to your primary phone.
You have to use it WhatsApp on your primary phone at least once every 14 days, otherwise these linked devices will be disconnected from your account—as a security measure, primarily. The idea is that if you don’t actively use your WhatsApp account, you don’t want to be signed in on many different devices where all your conversations are synced.
Back on your main device, you can see the devices you’ve connected, and log them out remotely if needed. On Android, tap the three dots in the upper-right corner of the conversation list, then select Connected devices; on iOS, tomorrow Settings and choose Connected Devices. You can see when your WhatsApp account was last accessed on each device, and log out on any device by tapping on it.
