If over the years there has been something demanded by WhatsApp users from those responsible for this service, without a doubt it is expanding your account access options. Let us remember that, as part of this type of service (not all of them, some debuted being much more generous in that sense), the user account was uniquely and exclusively linked to a smartphone (and to its respective telephone number, of course). . A severe but understandable limitation at the time. And we must remember that the service debuted in 2009, when the smartphone ecosystem was still an emerging trend.
Over time (six years later, to be exact, in 2015), a year after the original company had already been acquired by Facebook (now Meta), we live the first major expansion in this regard with the launch of WhatsApp Web, the browser version of the service that, finally, allowed us to access it from other devices. I even remember that, at the time, some apps for iPad became popular that were nothing more than a “tuned” browser to access the service from the Apple tablet.
It wasn’t much of an innovation, really. other instant messaging services already provided a similar function years before. I remember, for example, LINE, which already in 2012 offered many of the functions that we see coming to other services today. In the end, it did not succeed in the West but, to this day, it is still one of the most widely used instant messaging services in Asia. But hey, at least it was progress.
However, the great leap in this regard came last year, and it is that until then all connections depended on the smartphone, that is, if the phone was turned off, you could not access your account from WhatsApp Web or from apps on other devices. This began to change in the middle of last year with the launch of the multi-device support beta without the need for the smartphone to be connected. And in November of last year the feature began to roll out to all WhatsApp users. There were some initial problems, but today it works without incident.
However, WhatsApp has still maintained one major limitation. With last year’s change we can keep the account open simultaneously on up to four devices, but only one of them can be a smartphone. Why? I understand because of their policy of linking an account to a phone number, but still, it doesn’t seem like an insurmountable hurdle. But hey, for a few months we know that the company’s engineers were already working on it.
In this case it seems that, finally, the wait has had its reward. And it is that, as WABinfo anticipates, WhatsApp has already started testing Companion mode in its beta for Android, for the use of the same account on two smartphones. The companion mode is only active, yes, for certain testers of said version, not for all of them, which makes us think that Meta wants to go step by step with its tests and its subsequent deployment.
Thus, some users of the beta of the WhatsApp app who install it on an Android smartphone will see, when opening it for the first time, in the configuration section, an option to link this “new” terminal with another device, that is, with another smartphone and, once this operation is completed, the conversation history will be synchronized and you will be able to access your account normally, and simultaneously, from both terminals. Of course, according to said media, and since it is a beta version, it is possible that some functions of the service are not available in it.
