JAKARTA - WhatsApp will soon offer a "companion mode" which allows more than one smartphone or other device to log in to one account.
This will allow users to access their chats, send messages and make calls simultaneously from different devices.
A savvy user discovered the feature in an unreleased WhatsApp update currently being tested through the Google Play Beta Program. This is a subscription service that gives Android users exclusive access to new versions of apps available on the Google Play store.
The screenshot shared on the WABetaInfo website reveals that WhatsApp users will be able to connect a second device by scanning a QR code.
First, users need to download and open WhatsApp on the second device, then tap on the overflow menu, which displays three dots, on the registration screen. Then they can tap "Connect device", and a unique QR code will be displayed.
Finally, they can open WhatsApp on the main device, tap "Settings" and "Connected devices", and they will be able to scan the QR code on the second device. This will start the transfer of chat history and other data.
From then on, any messages sent or calls made to that WhatsApp account will be received by both primary and secondary devices.
It provides an option for users to access their chats from other devices if the primary device does not have an active internet connection.
Users can also update their status and manage their "broadcast list" - a saved list of recipients of broadcast messages - from a second device.
The leak says that you will be able to connect up to four devices to one account.
The first device signed in to the WhatsApp account will still be the primary device and is required to add a new companion device.
Users will only be able to change the phone number associated with their account from the primary device.
This feature is available in WhatsApp version 2.23.8.2, currently undergoing beta testing, but its existence suggests that it will be rolling out to the Android app soon.
This unreleased update also lets users lock their private chats so that they can only be accessed with biometric data, such as fingerprints, or passcodes.
Testing at this time only allows users to make Android devices as companion devices, as unreleased updates can only be downloaded through the Google Play Beta Program.
The leak adds that any messages or calls that have been sent or received through the companion device will be end-to-end encrypted.
This news comes just one month after the head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, said he would prefer the app to be banned in the UK rather than remove end-to-end encryption.
Governments may soon ban this security feature, which scrambles message content to protect it from hackers, through the Online Security Bill.
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New legislation proposed in the UK could force technology companies to scan the content of messages sent through their social platforms for illegal content. However, such a move would likely force them to weaken or eliminate their own security measures.
WhatsApp can't view messages sent through its own service, so it can't comply with law enforcement requests to turn them in for counter-terrorism purposes or identify and remove child abuse material, for example.
Cathcart said that weakening WhatsApp message privacy in the UK would do that for all users around the world.
"There is no way to change it in just one part of the world," he said, quoted by the Daily Mail. "Some countries have chosen to block it: that's the reality of safe products. We were recently blocked in Iran, for example. But we've never seen liberal democracies do that."
He added: "The reality is, our users around the world want security. 98 per cent of our users are outside the UK. They don't want us to lower the security of the product, and as an obvious matter, it would be an odd choice for us to choose to lower security. product in a way that will affect those 98 percent of users."
Cathcart criticized the Online Security Act in September, saying it was "confusing" that the government wanted to weaken security, not strengthen it.
The UK government insists that the Act "does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption" and that "we can and should have both" child privacy and security.
However, the Act also does not explicitly state how it would be possible to monitor the content of messages and still continue to encrypt them, creating a "gray area".
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