It's easy enough to remove linked devices from your settings, but it's worthwhile that some device management could come up faster than you'd expect.Īlso for now, smartwatches aren't able to be a linked device, nor is WhatsApp offering an Apple Watch app. If you clear your cache on your web browser, and then log in again to WhatsApp on that web browser, it will also come up as a new linked device.
Should you use the WhatsApp desktop app and WhatsApp for web on the same computer, WhatsApp will see that as two devices. I also found that one could inadvertently fill up their linked device limit quickly. If you don't log in to WhatsApp for 14 days from your phone - whether because you lost the phone or perhaps you only use WhatsApp very occasionally for specific contacts - all linked devices will get logged out.
Linked devices also rely on your phone using WhatsApp in order to stay logged in. During setup, your phone will send your device a copy of your most recent message history. WhatsApp also spells out other omissions that linked devices don't yet support, which include clearing or deleting chats from a linked device if you use WhatsApp on an iPhone and viewing live location.Īnd even though a linked device won't need a connection to your phone, the new WhatsApp feature still requires a phone in order to get started. You can access linked devices within WhatsApp's settings. The web version that I use on my Chromebook and iPad don't have access to those calling features. However, some features like video and voice calling only work on WhatsApp's Windows, MacOS and mobile apps. As I outlined earlier, I can flip back and forth between different devices across several operating systems, and keep up with group chats or quick texts seamlessly. The best part of the new WhatsApp multidevice launch is speed. Works on nearly any device, but not nearly every feature
When your WhatsApp account receives the new linked devices feature, you'll receive a message similar to this one. I wouldn't call WhatsApp's multidevice system perfect yet, and other messaging apps like Signal and Telegram do offer similar solutions, so let's go over a few more of the ins and outs for WhatsApp's particular multidevice setup. In addition to that flexibility, I also found WhatsApp would simply boot up much faster across the devices I tested, which include my work Mac, a Chromebook and an iPad. From that point on, that browser or desktop app will be able to access your WhatsApp texts regardless of whether your phone is around.
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You set up these devices by scanning a QR code generated on WhatsApp's website or desktop app with the WhatsApp app on your phone, and after that they're listed as "Linked Devices" within your account. WhatsApp now lets you pick as many as four devices aside from your phone that can send and receive WhatsApp messages. Other Meta-owned services like Messenger don't have this limitation, but at the cost to your privacy of not having end-to-end encryption on by default. If your phone powered off or was temporarily lost, you essentially couldn't access your texts at all. However, they previously required a constant connection with your phone in order to function. WhatsApp's desktop apps are not new, to be clear. WhatsApps newest feature creates a cross-platform texting experience that reminds me of using iMessage across Mac and an iPhone - but without the requirement of being stuck on just Apple's devices. Thanks to the web and desktop app's new Linked Devices feature, previously in beta and rolling out to the public over the next several months, you can get faster access to chats from nearly any computer or tablet you choose, while preserving much of the encryption and security that the app is known for. Your phone doesn't need to be working to access texts on WhatsApps.