Soon you’ll be able to use two WhatsApp accounts on one smartphone. One could be for private purposes and another for work. You can sign in and stay signed in to both accounts at the same time. Mark Zuckerberg announced the news today via his Facebook account.
So you no longer have to log out every time you want to send a message with your other account. And you also no longer have to carry two smartphones if you want or need to work with two WhatsApp accounts at the same time. In addition, you can no longer have the misfortune of sending a message from the wrong account because you forgot to log out and log in again.
How to use a second WhatsApp account on the same phone
To set up a second account, you need a second phone number and a SIM card or a phone that supports multi-SIM or eSIM. Then open your WhatsApp settings, tap the arrow next to your name and then click “Add account”. For each account, you can set your privacy and notification settings individually.
Exact launch date is unclear
As early as June 2023, fans discovered this innovation in the beta versions of WhatsApp for Android. Initially, however, it was not yet possible to try it out, but the test phase for WhatsApp beta testers on Android devices then started in August.
However, Meta is vague about the exact launch date when multiple accounts will be officially available: “This feature will be rolled out to Android users in the coming weeks and months.” There is no mention of iPhone owners yet, suggesting there could be a much longer wait. We have asked Meta about this and as soon as we have more information, we will post it here.
This story originally appeared in German on PCWelt.de.
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Author: Hans-Christian Dirscherl, Managing Editor, PC-WELT
Hans-Christian Dirscherl began his IT life with Autoexec.bat and config.sys, Turbo-Pascal and C, Sinix and Wordperfect. He has been writing on almost all IT topics for around 25 years, covering everything from news to reviews and buying guides.