WhatsApp Confirms Multi-Device Support Will Be Entering Public Beta Soon

WhatsApp’s Will Cathcart and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have confirmed that the long-awaited multi-device support will be entering public beta in the next couple of months. Additionally, “view once” and “disappearing mode” options were also announced during a recent interview.

Cathcart and Zuckerberg discussed upcoming features and updates to WhatsApp in an interview with WABetaInfo. During the interview, Zuckerberg confirmed that multi-device support for up to four devices will be headed to the platform in the form of a public beta for the time being. Zuckerberg has stated that the feature will not support the same end-to-end encryption WhatsApp offers for messages sent between users. Though Zuckerberg has stated, “It’ll still be end-to-end encrypted.”

Additionally, Zuckerberg wrote, “It’s been a big technical challenge to get all your messages and content to sync properly across devices even when your phone battery dies, but we’ve solved this and we’re looking forward to getting it out soon!”

The timeline of when the feature will enter public beta is still a bit nebulous. Cathcart did confirm that users can look out for it “in the next month or two”. When asked whether multi-device support will also enable support for WhatsApp to be used on iPad, Cathcart tiptoed around the question but stated multi-device “will make it possible” for the company to pursue that.

On top of confirming multi-device support, Cathcart and Zuckerberg confirmed that a “view once” feature is in the works. Users will soon be able to send content with the expectation that it will disappear after it has been viewed. Additionally, a “disappearing mode” will also soon be available. Once enabled, messages will disappear after a certain amount of time across all chats. Again, Cathcart nor Zuckerberg indicated when these features would be accessible.

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