WhatsApp is reportedly testing a new app update that will focus on allowing users to send and receive messages without using their phone for the first time ever.
Currently, WhatsApp is connected to the user’s phone. Even if you are using the Desktop and Web application, it will require that the phone device should be connected to Internet and charged to receive messages.
But the new feature will allow users to send and receive messages “even if your phone’s battery is dead”.
Four Devices Can Be Used Together
Up to four other devices – such as PCs and tablets – can be used together, WhatsApp said.
First, the new feature will be released as a beta test for a “small group of users”, and the team plans to improve performance and add more features before enabling it for everyone.
End-to-end encryption – WhatsApp’s main selling point – will still work under the new system, it said.
Competition
Some messaging apps already have this feature, including a rival app signal, which requires the phone to register, but not to exchange messages.
But this feature has long been requested by WhatsApp users. WhatsApp has reportedly two billion users in total on its platform.
Official Statement
In a blog post announcing the update, Facebook engineers said the change needed to “rethink” the WhatsApp design.
That’s because the current version “uses the smartphone app as a primary device, making the phone a true source of all user data and the only device capable of sending end-user messages [or] starting calls”, the company said.
