Facebook's Mark Reveals Upcoming WhatsApp Expansion

Facebook’s Mark Reveals Upcoming WhatsApp Expansion

WhatsApp has acknowledgd that it’s working on letting you link up to four different devices to the same account, a feature that could finally pave the way to a native iPad app.

WhatsApp and Facebook CEOs Confirm New Messaging Features Are in the Works

This information comes from the highest authority, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart themselves. In an unexpected group chat withWABetaInfo , the executives have apparently confirmed that multi-device capability will soon launch in beta capacity for fans of the popular messaging service.

One of the messages from Zuckerberg reads as follows:

I wanted to chat so we could share some info with you about some of our upcoming features. I know you cover a lot of our new features already, but I figured it would help for us to go on the record and confirm a few things that are definitely coming soon.

WABetaInfo has made a name for itself by reverse engineering WhatsApp’s beta releases in order to unearth evidence of unannounced and unreleased features. This has got to be the first time Zuckerberg has reached out to a blog to share what’s coming to WhatsApp.

WhatsApp to Gain Multi-Device Support Soon

With multi-device support, he said, customers will be able to link a single WhatsApp account to up to four different devices. Furthermore, each device will be allowed to use WhatsApp even if the user doesn’t have their smartphone on them.

The current system is convoluted in that you can use WhatsApp’s desktop application but only if WhatsApp on your smartphone is constantly connected to the internet.

Zuckerberg mentions that the WhatsApp team has faced “a big technical challenge” in getting all your messages and content to sync properly across devices “even when your phone battery dies.” Importantly, he went on to say that Facebook has solved this problem with an elegant solution that he thinks will be “the best solution out there.”

Multi-device support will be rolled out in a public WhatsApp beta within two months so people will be able to try out the feature ahead of launch. Zuckerberg has said that Facebook will consider opening up the WhatsApp beta to some more iOS users soon.

Is WhatsApp Working on an iPad App?

Facebook for years resisted calls to create a native version of WhatsApp for Apple’s iPad. Company executives would typically deflect any questions regarding WhatsApp for iPad by saying that the web interface, which works on any device, already offers that functionality.

But now, WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart is hitting that the upcoming multi-device support might also “make it possible for us to build things like that.” Other features coming to the WhatsApp service, according to the executives, include the following enhancements:

Disappearing mode: Auto-vanishing messages for all chat threads.
View mode: View received photos and videos only once.

WhatsApp recently rolled out disappearing messages in any chat thread on the iOS and Android app. With the new disappearing mode, Zuckerberg says, the WhatsApp experience “basically becomes ephemeral” as it turns on disappearing messages in all chat threads.