WhatsApp is currently linked to a user’s phone.
Its desktop and web apps need the users device to be connected before it can be use to send and receive messages.
Whatsapp is testing a new feature which will allow users to send and receive messages even if their phone is not with them or the battery is dead.
The tech giant already disclosed that they are also testing a new feature that can link up to four devices.
Now lets focus on the new feature which will be rolled out as a beta for testing with small groups of users.
Whatsapp team is also planning to improve performance and add features before enabling it for everyone.
End-to-end encryption which is one of WhatsApp priorities will still be maintained under the new system.
In a recent post on twitter by a Facebook Engineer called Will Cathcart said the change needed a “rethink” of WhatsApp’s software design.
That is because the current version of Whatsapp uses a smartphone app as the primary device, making the phone the source of truth for all user data and the only device capable of end-to-end encrypting messages for another user or initiating calls”, the company said.
WhatsApp Web and other non-smartphone apps are essentially a “mirror” of what happens on the phone.
But that system has significant drawbacks familiar to many regular users, as the web app is known to frequently disconnect.
It also means that only one so-called “companion app” can be active at a time so loading WhatsApp on another device will disconnect a WhatsApp web window.
“The new WhatsApp multi-device architecture removes these hurdles, no longer requiring a smartphone to be the source of truth, while still keeping user data seamlessly and securely synchronized and private,” the company said.
