WhatsApp is introducing a new feature called Companion Mode to its users globally. It allows you to use your WhatsApp account on multiple phones. Before, you could only use your account on one phone at a time. With Companion Mode, you can link up to four secondary devices to your account, including desktop apps and Android tablets. This means you won’t get logged out of your primary phone if you log in on another device. The feature was tested with selected users last year and was recently rolled out to public beta users. It will be available to everyone in the coming weeks.
You can now use your WhatsApp account on up to five devices at the same time, including your primary phone. However, you can only link up to four secondary devices, such as web, desktop, app, Android tablet, or companion phones. This means you can’t link your account to your desktop if you already have four linked smartphones. All your messages, media, and calls are synced across all linked devices, and they are all still end-to-end encrypted. However, there are some limitations for companion phones. You cannot use them to view live locations, create or view broadcast lists, or add or delete WhatsApp statuses.
You can log out of linked devices from the devices themselves or remotely from your primary phone in the linked devices setting. Linking a secondary phone is easy, you just tap on the menu in the top-right corner of the app on your Android device and open up “Link a device.” Then, scan the QR code with your primary device. You can use either an Android or an iPhone as your primary phone, but you can’t use iPhones as linked companion devices yet. Your primary device doesn’t need to be online for you to use WhatsApp on your linked devices. However, if you don’t use the app on your primary phone for over 14 days, all your secondary devices will be automatically logged out.
