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You’ll soon be able link your WhatsApp account to five smartphones

By Winnie Onyando November 16th, 2022 2 min read

WhatsApp has begun testing a feature that will enable users to link the same WhatsApp account on multiple smartphones.

The new feature will enable users to link their WhatsApp accounts to four other devices with the main phone, meaning that they will theoretically have five smartphones using the same account.

The WhatsApp multi-device support has been enabled for some users on WhatsApp beta for Android 2.22.21.6.

How to use this new feature:

To access the new feature, users will click on Link a device option on the WhatsApp registration page on their secondary smartphone.

This will then generate a QR code they must scan using their primary phone’s Linked Devices section on WhatsApp.

Once this is done, WhatsApp will sync chat histories across the two smartphones while keeping end-to-end encryption intact.

Also read: Experts have their say on Nairobi’s free Wi-Fi

The feature currently has the same limitations as multi-device on computers, with the secondary device unable to view live locations and manage broadcast lists and stickers.

It is unclear when the feature will be available to users running the official stable versions of the WhatsApp app on Android and iOS.
WhatsApp officially rolled out improved multi-device capabilities a month before that.

For the first time, it allowed using the same WhatsApp profile on linked computers without the smartphone containing the account being actively connected to the Internet.

Also read: How to protect your smartphone while using free WiFi in Nairobi

WhatsApp Android and iOS betas released in September 2022 added support for linking Android tablets to the main account, but this must also still make its way to stable releases of the app.

About security issues, WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption feature ensures that all the users communication on the platform, including messages, files, and calls, is private and can only be viewed by you and the recipient.

This comes just a few days after WhatsApp rolled out a new feature that allows you to message yourself.

Also read: How to message yourself on WhatsApp