For some reason, certainly not technical, they are still not allowing multiple numbers on the same device, with the same ease I can switch accounts on instagram, for example.
(web vs app workaround are clearly not the right way to go)
And, honestly, if bots and spam is what they were really worried about, allowing "two numbers" instead of just one would already be plenty for 99.999% of people that would gladly avoid carrying to devices (typically, personal and work)
Workaround I've been using for a while: You can install both the "regular" WhatsApp and the "Business" version, those are separate apps in the App Stores. This way you can set up your personal number on the regular WhatsApp and your work number on WhatsApp for Business.
Although valid, this is in fact a workaround not meant to be a stable solution, because it has the drawback of de-activating that number-whatsapp link on the first phone you used it on.
edit: I am stupid, as the latest feature actually allows this workaround to become a permanent solution...
The Dual Messenger is a great feature, in addition to the business version. IIRC, you can also have separate instances running in the secure folder too.
In my phone I can go to Settings->Apps->Dual Apps and enable WhatsApp. This creates a clone of the app, which can be registered with a second number. When you open WhattsApp you can select which of the two you want to open. Have been using this for probably 2+ years now...
On Pixel phones and other devices which don't support Dual Apps, you can create a "Work Profile". It is a completely isolated section of your phone and you can install another copy of Whatsapp by opening the playstore in your work profile.
It's there in Xiaomi and a few others. It essentially creates a separate sandboxed space for the entire phone. Apps, settings, themes, everything is isolated. Both the SIMs are accessible in either space.
I think I enabled this with a SIM in another phone and entered the SMS based OTP, but I can't be sure. In any case, right now I only have one SIM in the device, and the dual app continues to work without a problem.
Yes, it's Android. Not surprised that it doesn't work on iOS.
Yes, I currently have three numbers and I had to carry two iPhone with me. Already using Whatsapp and Whatsapp Business.
I wish Whatsapp Business actually allow Multiple Numbers with Subscriptions. Still dont understand why Meta dont monetise it. I have been send emails begging for them to charge me for certain business features.
Our phones now have so much critical stuff that being able to have a backup for more dangerous situations without losing contact with everyone is very important.
In dangerous places like Brazil, it stresses me to no end to go to some places or events (concerts, football matches, street fairs and events) with my phone that has all my banking information, email, access to my files, etc.
Currently the only thing that really prevents me from just using an old backup phone for this is that you can't have WhatsApp in 2 phones, so you end up having to resort to "ancient" (just kidding) ways like calls and SMS. Unfortunately, a lot of people (at least in Latin America or from here) basically only use WhatsApp nowadays.
My current solution was to have a second SIM card with a second WhatsApp account, which at least allowed me to message people in my contact list. With the amount of scams, though, a lot of my friends do not trust this unless I personally meet then and tell them to add the second contact.
Might seem like a small issue, but for me this will be a huge help. I leave my phone with all those annoying apps that use it as 2FA, banks and everything in hour and use a strip down version to go around.
With your data and metadata still flowing through Meta. No thanks.
Multi-phone is a nice feature though, it's something I like about Telegram, Wire, and Session. It would be nice if Signal had this feature but I would prefer accounts without a telephone number or email address (like Session) first.
Signal has had this feature (linking the same account in multiple devices) for years. I’ve added more details in a reply to another comment on this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35729024
Does anybody know if this would also work for tablets?
It has been quite some time since I tried last, but you used to have to use the web app to check your messages on your tablet.
Would be nice if both devices could now share an account
I wonder if it took so long because of how difficult pluralising-after-the-fact is [1]. For example, I imagine all client apps keep a list of contacts and a one-to-one public key for each contact (rather than one-to-many).
Nice article that I agree with. Some things it's just better to do preemptively just in case: pluralise and paginate.
Whatsapp breaking its one-phone assumption must have been hard, but they'd managed to do a web version, so some intermediate kludgy solution was probably feasible sooner. Maybe it was de-prioritised or decided against.
Still far from Telegram's usability. You can run it anywhere.
Even bind it to a liburple plugin with TDlib. Or an SSH server with
nchat.
Thus, you can use it from Bitlbee under a Raspberry Pi with a Pentium era potato connected to it using BitchX/Mirc or even Amiga/Atari/Classic Macs with any IRC client.
I use Whatsapp Web[0] to link my desktop computer to Whatsapp. I like being able to do that, since I can type better on my desktop, instead of my phone. I'm really bad at typing long-form things on my phone.
> WhatsApp users are getting a long-requested feature: access to the same account across multiple cellphones.
This has been supported by Signal for years by linking devices. You can have the same Signal account on the primary phone (the one you verified through SMS OTP), a tablet and/or a desktop or other device. Messages (and message read statuses) get synced across devices.
Open Signal, go to Settings, then to “Linked Devices” and then choose “Link a New Device” to set it up. And unlike the previous WhatsApp desktop solution, Signal doesn’t (and did not) have the requirement to have the primary phone close by to act as a proxy. You can leave your primary phone anywhere (like on some other network or offline) and still have the linked devices work fine.
I love Signal's multi-device and have been using it, but I wish you could have linked phones in addition to linked desktop clients. For example, you cannot have an Android as your primary and link an iPhone. There's no inherent reason for this other than the mobile clients not supporting anything other than being a primary.
(web vs app workaround are clearly not the right way to go)
And, honestly, if bots and spam is what they were really worried about, allowing "two numbers" instead of just one would already be plenty for 99.999% of people that would gladly avoid carrying to devices (typically, personal and work)