Until now, the WhatsApp smartphone app has been an essential conduit for the service. It has built a system that retains end-to-end encryption while letting people sync data like contact names, archives and starred messages across devices. With the help of those users, WhatsApp will optimize the multi-device experience and add some more features before rolling it out more broadly.Īlthough many users have been requesting multi-device support, it's taken WhatsApp some time to make that happen. They'll be able to opt out of the beta later. WhatsApp will try the multi-device approach with a small group of people from its beta program. You'll be able to use the service on your phone and up to four other devices (as long as they also aren't phones). Starting today, WhatsApp will invite users to try its multi-device beta. That's about to change, and eventually you'll no longer need to have a phone nearby to use WhatsApp on the web, macOS, Windows or Portal. Although WhatsApp users can use the messaging service across several platforms, they still need to be connected to a smartphone, largely because of the way WhatsApp handles end-to-end encryption (E2EE).