How to Sign in to WhatsApp on Multiple Phones, Web, and Other Devices

The developers of WhatsApp have been providing it with constant updates and upgrades over the years, and one of the features recently added to the messaging app is what we now take for granted in other chat tools: the ability to sync conversations and accounts across multiple smartphones.

Previously, your WhatsApp account was linked to the number registered on the phone you used it on. This confirmed that you were who you said you were (at least most part of time), but that also meant that you couldn’t access your chats from another smartphone that was linked to a different number.

For a couple of years could be tied up to four additional devices to the same WhatsApp account – and for those devices to access your recent chats, and send and receive messages with end-to-end encryption. However, some features such as current locations and status updates are not available on these linked devices.

Until now, these linked devices have had to be Android tablets or computers using web or desktop WhatsApp clients. Now, however, you can add more smartphones. As before, everything remains end-to-end encrypted, and the phone you first set up your WhatsApp account on doesn’t need to be turned on.

This is incredibly handy if you have multiple phones – say a personal phone and a work phone – and want to use the same WhatsApp account on both of them. It also helps manage whatsapp accounts for businesses as multiple people can be logged into the same whatsapp chat group on different phones.

Adding a second phone to WhatsApp

We assume that you have installed and use WhatsApp on the same phone and you ready to add a second. This secondary phone can run the same mobile operating system as the original phone, but it doesn’t have to—you can set up an Android phone to work with an iPhone, or vice versa.

Install whatsapp for android or iOS on the second phone, then agree to the terms of use, but do not enter a phone number. Instead, tap the three dots in the top left corner and then Link to existing account (Android) or select Link this device to an existing account (iOS). You will be presented with a QR code which needs to be scanned on your main phone.

If your primary phone is an Android device, tap the three dots at the top right of the conversation list and select Related Devices, then Link device. If your primary phone is iPhone, tap Settingsthen Related devices And Link device. You can then scan the QR code on your secondary phone and in a few seconds all your recent chats should start syncing.

As with Facebook Messenger or Google Chat, chat is easily synced across both phones – both phones will ping when you receive a new message, both phones will show the same read and unread indicators, etc. You can compose and send new messages from any phone, and they will be displayed on another, too much.

Adding other devices to WhatsApp

The process is very similar to adding other devices. Log in whatsapp on the net and WhatsApp desktop clients, for example, the QR code you need is displayed as soon as you open the page, so you can just scan it with your main phone as before. Please note that you can sign out of linked devices, which is not possible on your primary device.

As we’ve said, there are some limits to what your linked devices can do, but they’re pretty minor. For example, you won’t be able to sync your entire message history, so if you need to go back in time regarding your WhatsApp messages, you’ll need to go back to your main phone.

You need to use WhatsApp on your primary phone at least once every 14 days, otherwise those associated devices will be disconnected from your account – primarily as a security measure. The idea is that if you’re not actively using your WhatsApp account, you don’t want to be signed in on multiple different devices where all your conversations are synced.

Back on your primary device, you can see the devices you’ve connected and remotely log out if needed. On Android, tap the three dots in the top right corner of the conversation list, then select Related devices; on iOS open Settings and choose Related devices. You can see when your WhatsApp account was last accessed on each device and sign out of any device by tapping on it.