WhatsApp has officially brought in the functionality to switch accounts, a long demanded feature by a varied group of users. Limited to two accounts at the moment, you can now simultaneously log into two different accounts, and switch between them, similar to how one can do it on Instagram. The announcement was made by Mark Zuckerberg on his official Facebook page.
“Helpful for switching between accounts – such as your work and personal – now you no longer need to log out each time, carry two phones or worry about messaging from the wrong place.”, WhatsApp said in a blog post. This is currently limited to two accounts.
Without this, users generally either carried two separate phones, or had to download Whatsapp and Whatsapp Business apps separately to run two accounts. Alternativey, Chinese phone makers such as Xiaomi and Oppo provided app-cloning workaround, letting you install two separate WhatsApps and run different numbers on them.
The idea seems pretty clear, as stated by WhatsApp itself. This is aimed at users who wish to operate both a personal as well as a business WhatsApp account, without having to carry multiple devices or installing multiple apps.
To operate this feature though, you still need two separate numbers. To set up a second account, you will need a second phone number and SIM card, or a phone that accepts multi-SIM or eSIM. If you have that, you can simply open your WhatsApp settings, click on the arrow next to your name, and click “Add account”. You can control your privacy and notification settings on each account separately, with both functioning as usual WhatsApp accounts with full suite of features, as one would expect.
