WhatsApp has been working on a lot of features over the past year, including joinable groups calls, a new WhatsApp call UI, sending photos in high quality, and a lot more. Though one feature that people are quite looking forward to is the multi-device support. The feature would let you use WhatsApp on Desktop devices even when your phone is not connected to the internet. In a new interview with TechRadar today, WhatsApp gave us a sneak peek at the multi-device device feature and how it would work.
WhatsApp multi-device support has already been released in beta. More and more people are being enrolled in the WhatsApp multi-device beta every day as the company plans to squash all the bugs before its public release. In the interview, a WhatsApp spokesperson told TechRadar that the feature has been underdeveloped for over a year and it was a big technical challenge to overcome.
Currently, how WhatsApp web/desktop works is by “mirroring” your messages back and forth to the phone.
“Multi-device means that users will have the same functionality that is available on the current public versions of WhatsApp Web, Desktop and Portal, just without the need to have your phone connected. Our multi-device capability immediately makes the experience better for people who use Desktop/Web and Portal. And it also will make it possible to add support for more kinds of devices over time.”
However, WhatsApp had no answer to the question many have been wondering about — how the local backup would work with the multi-device feature? WhatsApp has also been known to be working on encrypted cloud backup, however, the spokesperson did not “have no news to share on this topic.”
Adding to this, WhatsApp spokesperson said that the company has been working tirelessly “to make private conversations on WhatsApp feel as close to in-person as possible.”
“With so many people still apart from their loved ones, adjusting to new ways of working and trying to keep their businesses running, we’ve focused on how we can provide more support in these areas.
Lately, we’ve launched desktop calling, new features to make business messaging faster and easier and continued to support the COVID response efforts with messaging chatbots to make finding information about vaccines easier.”
What are your thoughts on the WhatsApp multi-device feature? Have you tried it with your devices? Drop a comment and let us know!
