WhatsApp, a dominant player in the world of instant messaging, has been striving for continuous improvement. For some time, Meta has been endeavoring to enhance the functionality of WhatsApp by allowing its use on multiple devices simultaneously. Initially, a web interface was introduced, followed by the ability to utilize accounts on secondary devices. The WhatsApp multi-device feature supported the use of the same account on one primary device and up to four other linked devices. Now, users have the liberty to include numerous additional smartphones in the mix.

For those unfamiliar, WhatsApp underwent a complete overhaul of its foundational structure to enable a smartphone to be one of the four linked devices per account. Previously, even beta users were limited to using only one smartphone as a linked device, in addition to their primary device. To circumvent this limitation, workarounds such as Companion mode, specifically designed for tablets, were employed with moderate success. However, the lifting of this constraint has been long-awaited. WhatsApp has now eliminated this limitation for all beta users, and even stable channel users can benefit from using one WhatsApp account on any combination of smartphones, computers, and Android tablets. Only two quirks remain: users can have a maximum of four linked devices, and none of them can be an iPad. However, in the absence of native iPad app support, one could always use web login on the tablet’s browser as a workaround.

With the revamped architecture, each linked device communicates independently with WhatsApp servers to keep chats synchronized. It is noteworthy that the primary smartphone needs to be online at least once every 30 days to keep the linked devices operational, but can be turned off otherwise. Meta assures users that end-to-end encryption will be available, irrespective of the device used to access an account.

The ability to access the same WhatsApp account across multiple smartphones (a scenario most of us are likely to be in) is an incredibly valuable feature that Multi-device support offers. Furthermore, the combination of Multi-device support and self-messaging is highly convenient when transferring files between linked devices. According to Meta, this feature can prove advantageous for small businesses as team members can use the same WhatsApp Business account to handle multiple customer queries simultaneously.

Meta has also announced a new way to link devices to an account without the use of QR codes, which will be available in the coming weeks. While multi-phone support is currently being rolled out, it will become globally available on a similar timeline. It is important to note that linked smartphones do not function precisely like the primary device, and it may take some time for users to adjust to the differences between the two experiences.