WhatsApp finally started supporting multiple devices at one time without needing your phone to always stay connected. The multi-device support feature however is still in beta testing, and it has its challenges here and there. I’ve loved using it, and I wish they roll it out to everyone soon.
The feature is something many other messaging apps including Telegram already have. WhatsApp is coming in way later than everyone, and they’re still not doing everything correctly. Right now there’s the iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows apps only. And you can’t just sign in to the Windows and Mac apps as you would with other messaging apps.
No, you need to first sign in to WhatsApp on your phone, then scan a code to activate the Mac and Windows Apps. It’s a long process, but it works anyways, I won’t complain right now. I guess they’ll solve all these hiccups in time.
What I think the company needs to really work on right now is an iPad App. For the longest time there has been no iPad app and it completely makes no sense now that there’s multiple device support.
iPads sit at a place where they just aren’t tablets, but full on computing devices. The way Apple has made them to be unique in features, and support makes them very good for different types of use cases. Why WhatsApp won’t want to have iPad users accessing their app easily makes no sense!
It won’t even be hard for the company to launch an iPad App if they wanted to right now. The App on the Mac works, and both devices run on the same architecture, so a little tweaks and the app will run on the iPad quite well. The iPhone app could also just be modified to now be available on the iPad.
Multi-device support is something WhatsApp should take seriously, and roll out to every possible platform that can run and use the messaging app. And they should do it in a way where having a phone is no longer a requirement to use the app.
Yes, accounts can still be activated using SMS codes, but with support for things like 2-Factor Authentication, accounts will remain safe even if signed in to devices which don’t read SMSs – something people already do with Android tablets.
I hope we get to see a full-on proper WhatsApp for iPad app in the coming months. And I hope the company implements multiple device support in a really cool way. I love making WhatsApp video calls from my Mac than from my phone. I want to be able to do that from any of my devices anytime.
