Whatsapp on multiple devices: Zuckerberg confirms beta phase
Whatsapp. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Simultaneous use of an account on several devices: Many have been waiting for this Whatsapp feature. Now Mark Zuckerberg and Whatsapp boss Will Cathcart have confirmed the function.
There were rumors as early as 2019, the first concrete reports followed in March of last year and now it is official: in the future it will be possible to use a Whatsapp account with several devices at the same time. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Whatsapp boss Will Cathcart confirmed in a chat with the Twitter account Wabetainfothat there will be a beta phase for the feature in the coming months.
Accordingly, it should be possible to access a WhatsApp account with up to four linked devices at the same time. So far, users who switch from one device to another while using WhatsApp and log in there are automatically logged out on the device last used. The multi-device support of the messenger service should also be possible on iPads, as Whatsapp boss Will Cathcart confirmed.
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End-to-end encryption should remain
So far, Whatsapp’s end-to-end encryption has caused delays in the development of multi-device use. The reason: With this type of encryption, messages are encrypted at the sender and decrypted again at the recipient. Only short-term storage takes place on the Whatsapp servers. This made it difficult to keep multiple devices in sync. Whatsapp has now apparently solved this problem.
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“It will still be end-to-end encrypted,” Zuckerberg read in the chat log. He speaks of an “elegant and best possible solution”. The Facebook CEO leaves open what exactly he means by that. Zuckerberg and Cathcart were apparently in a good mood: In addition to using an account on several devices, the two announced the new functions “Take a look” and a further development of the Disappearing Mode. Accordingly, Whatsapp is planning a new function for the one-time display of messages. This is intended to enable users to send content that disappears after being viewed once.
