WhatsApp’s CEO, Will Cathcart, confirmed today that the company is working on a feature to link multiple devices to one account. In a conversation with WABetaInfo, he revealed that you’ll be able to sync your account on four devices — and iPad support is also coming.
Currently, you can use your WhatsApp account on only one device (your phone with the registered number). Sure, WhatsApp has a web version, but your phone has to be connected to the internet for it to work. The upcoming multi-device functionality will eliminate that altogether.
Telegram is one of such apps that allows you to sync all your messages across multiple devices, but it’s not end-to-end encrypted. WhatsApp’s upcoming feature will make it easy for many people who rely on the app to communicate with their friends and family when their phone runs out of charge.
In the conversation with WABetaInfo, Mark Zuckerberg also noted that the company will bring in disappearing messages that’ll vanish after one viewing. Plus, the app will have an ephemeral mode; when you switch that on, all the conversations under that thread will disappear in a set time.
All these features seem exciting, but none of the executives made any remarks about when they’ll be available to users. So we just have to wait and watch.
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