Following the WhatsApp controversy featuring an ultimatum and users deciding to jump ship to other messaging platforms, the messaging network has bolstered its quality-of-life features in recent months. Now it looks like one of those features may be multi-device support across operating systems.
A recent report by the trusted leakers behind WABetaInfo found that a beta version of the app features chat migration between iOS and Android. This could be the first step to offering full multi-device interoperability.
Too many WhatsApp’s to handle
Right now, users can only have their WhatsApp account on either Android or iOS, and not on multiple devices. WhatsApp desktop offers full functionality when connected to the same network as the phone with the main account. Telegram, the chat app’s main competitor at this stage, offers full functionality on multiple devices, regardless of what network that device is connected to.
But if WABetaInfo’s correct (and it’s rarely incorrect), we’ll see some multi-device features in an upcoming update. “Once data is migrated to a second device, the two devices will be linked to the same WhatsApp account and remain in sync. This suggests chat migration could be the first step to activate WhatsApp’s multi-device feature if a user wants to use their account across two devices with different OSes,” Android Authority details.
Using the app on multiple devices won’t be similar to Telegram’s multi-device interoperability. WhatsApp’s feature will still rely on a mutual connection, and it looks like they won’t function independently. According to Android Authority, “deleting a specific message in a group will delete it from both devices. Pinned or starred messages will also be visible across both devices. Messages sent on one phone will be visible from another, too.”
If you delete a message only for yourself (not everyone), however, it won’t be automatically deleted on the other device for some arbitrary reason. This may be a quirk only seen in beta, however, so we may see it function in a completely different way once it makes its way to the public.
