WhatsApp finally gave its users multi-device support, but there’s a catch

WhatsApp has finally made it possible to use a single account on more than one phone or tablet, fulfilling a popular request from users. Since each WhatsApp account is linked to a phone number, the company had only allowed users to use one account per device. 

The new change means you can use your same account on your personal phone and your work phone, without synchronization issues.

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The drawback? This feature is only available when the secondary device is an Android phone or tablet, so it doesn’t support extending your account to an iOS device yet. iPhones and iPads can be used as a primary device to extend an account to Android. 

For privacy reasons, if your primary device remains inactive for a long period of time, you will be logged out of the secondary devices.

Also: How to transfer your WhatsApp account from Android to iPhone

As these are new changes that were being tested since 2022, we can expect the ability to use an iOS device as a secondary for a WhatsApp account is likely to be added in future updates.

Whatsapp is the most popular messaging app in the world, with over 2.2 billion active users spread across over 100 countries. Its popularity comes easily as it’s a free messaging app that gives its users peace of mind with end-to-end encryption. 

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Before this update, users could use the same WhatsApp account on a web version of WhatsApp, either through a computer or the browser on a secondary device. This change makes it so the app itself works seamlessly across multiple phones, with real-time syncing.