Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

WhatsApp on multiple phones feature added

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–37 of 37 posts

Re: WhatsApp on multiple phones feature added

#31

Post by creamyhorror »

timwis wrote: post #10

I wonder if it took so long because of how difficult pluralising-after-the-fact is [1]. For example, I imagine all client apps keep a list of contacts and a one-to-one public key for each contact (rather than one-to-many). [1]: https://www.swyx.io/preemptive-pluralization

Nice article that I agree with. Some things it's just better to do preemptively just in case: pluralise and paginate.

Whatsapp breaking its one-phone assumption must have been hard, but they'd managed to do a web version, so some intermediate kludgy solution was probably feasible sooner. Maybe it was de-prioritised or decided against.

Re: WhatsApp on multiple phones feature added

#32

Post by ksec »

gcatalfamo wrote: post #4

For some reason, certainly not technical, they are still not allowing multiple numbers on the same device, with the same ease I can switch accounts on instagram, for example. (web vs app workaround are clearly not the right way to go) And, honestly, if bots and spam is what they were really worried about, allowing "two numbers" instead of just one would already be plenty for 99.999% of people that would gladly avoid…

Yes, I currently have three numbers and I had to carry two iPhone with me. Already using Whatsapp and Whatsapp Business.

I wish Whatsapp Business actually allow Multiple Numbers with Subscriptions. Still dont understand why Meta dont monetise it. I have been send emails begging for them to charge me for certain business features.

Re: WhatsApp on multiple phones feature added

#34

Post by swyx »

timwis wrote: post #10

I wonder if it took so long because of how difficult pluralising-after-the-fact is [1]. For example, I imagine all client apps keep a list of contacts and a one-to-one public key for each contact (rather than one-to-many). [1]: https://www.swyx.io/preemptive-pluralization

haha thanks for sharing my article!

Re: WhatsApp on multiple phones feature added

#36

Post by mikece »

newscracker wrote: post #25
mikece wrote: post #3

With your data and metadata still flowing through Meta. No thanks. Multi-phone is a nice feature though, it's something I like about Telegram, Wire, and Session. It would be nice if Signal had this feature but I would prefer accounts without a telephone number or email address (like Session) first.

Signal has had this feature (linking the same account in multiple devices) for years. I’ve added more details in a reply to another comment on this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35729024

When I say multiple devices I mean phones: not one phone and three desktops but all three of the phones I use (personal, work, and "other" phone).

Re: WhatsApp on multiple phones feature added

#37

Post by Canada »

newscracker wrote: post #24
Canada wrote: post #21

I wish Signal would enable this.

The article says (emphasis mine): > WhatsApp users are getting a long-requested feature: access to the same account across multiple cellphones. This has been supported by Signal for years by linking devices. You can have the same Signal account on the primary phone (the one you verified through SMS OTP), a tablet and/or a desktop or other device. Messages (and message read statuses) get synced across devices. Open Si…

I love Signal's multi-device and have been using it, but I wish you could have linked phones in addition to linked desktop clients. For example, you cannot have an Android as your primary and link an iPhone. There's no inherent reason for this other than the mobile clients not supporting anything other than being a primary.
Post reply on HN