WhatsApp beta users will soon be able to utilize several devices: Here’s how it’ll go

WhatsApp Multi-device Compatibility: WhatsApp is launching a restricted public beta test that will provide the platform with multi-device support. Users will be able to utilize the service on their phone as well as up to four other non-phone devices at the same time.

WhatsApp is launching a restricted public beta test that will enable the platform to work across several devices. Users will be able to utilize the service on their phone as well as up to four other non-phone devices at the same time. Users will be able to view their communications on these other devices, even if their primary phone’s battery has died, according to WhatsApp. This will be a departure from the present system, which relies on the phone to maintain communication across many devices.

WhatsApp is now only available on the phone when paired to a single account number. Users may use WhatsApp Web to access it from their PC, but the connection is still reliant on the phone.

According to a blog post on the Facebook engineering site, “each companion device will connect to your WhatsApp separately while retaining the same degree of privacy and security with end-to-end encryption…” with the new multi-device capability.

WhatsApp has “created new methods to maintain end-to-end encryption” while syncing data including contact names, conversation archives, and starred messages between devices. In order to make this possible, the firm had to “rethink WhatsApp’s architecture and design,” according to the post.

How do I use WhatsApp on many devices?

Because the functionality has not yet been rolled out to people using stable WhatsApp versions, you may not be able to utilize it. The firm aims to “test the experience with a limited group of users from the existing beta program,” according to the company’s blog post. They will continue to “optimize performance and add a few other features before gradually pushing it out more broadly,” according to the statement. It’s unclear whether the functionality will be available to all Android and iOS beta users.

So, how does WhatsApp support for multiple devices work?

The primary device is now the “sole device capable of end-to-end encrypting communications for another user, initiating calls, and so on.”

According to the blog, the phone will no longer be the primary device, and user data will be synchronized “seamlessly and securely” and kept private.

Each device will now have its own identification key thanks to multi-device support. According to the blog, this is a departure from the current approach, in which a person is recognized by a “single identification key from which all encrypted communication keys were obtained.” The WhatsApp server will keep a mapping between each person’s account and all of their device IDs, according to the article. When someone wishes to send a message, the server gives them their device list keys.

What about user privacy and end-to-end encryption?

“The WhatsApp client sending the message encrypts and transmits it N number of times to N number of different devices — those in the sender and receiver’s device lists,” according to WhatsApp. The communication is “individually encrypted with each device utilizing the established pairwise encryption session.”

Furthermore, when messages are sent, they are not kept on the server, and WhatsApp continues to employ the Signal Protocol’s scalable Sender Key encryption method. Furthermore, all voice and video conversations, including group calls, will be encrypted end-to-end.

The second stage will be the implementation of a technology known as Automatic Device Verification, which will be implemented later. “This method allows devices to automatically develop trust amongst each other in such a way that someone only has to check another user’s security code if that user reregisters their whole account, rather than every time they link a new device to their account,” according to the article.

Users will have more control and protection over the devices that are linked to their accounts. To begin, everyone will be asked to link new companion gadgets to their phones by scanning a QR code. Before connecting where people have been enabled, this method now requires biometric authentication.

Finally, users will be able to see all of their account’s companion devices, as well as when they were last used, and will be able to log out of them remotely if necessary.

“Message history, as well as other applicable state data (such as contact names, if a conversation is archived, or whether a message is starred), will be synchronized between devices,” according to the new functionality. Between devices, this data will be encrypted end-to-end.

When a companion device is attached, “the primary device encrypts a bundle of recent chat messages and transmits them to the newly associated device,” according to the article. The new device receives the key for this. “ When the companion device has finished downloading.

The “WhatsApp server securely keeps a copy of each application state that all of someone’s devices may access” for additional application data such as contact numbers or when a user starts a message. All of this information is “end-to-end encrypted with continuously changing keys known only to that person’s devices,” according to WhatsApp.