If you use WhatsApp, you might know that its contact list shows contacts from your smartphone’s contact list that are available on the platform. It means that if you want to start a conversation with someone on WhatsApp for PC or the web whose number isn’t saved on your phone, you won’t be able to. To do that, you will have to reach for your phone, save the contact to whom you want to message, come back to your PC, wait for WhatsApp on it to sync contacts with your phone, and then message that contact. Well, that won’t be the case in the near future.
WhatsApp for PC and the web will soon let you add contacts
WhatsApp has announced that it will soon update WhatsApp for Windows and Web to allow you to add contacts to the platform, which will make it easier for you to start a conversation with someone on WhatsApp for PC or Web whose contact isn’t saved on your phone. Eventually, the company will update the platform to allow you to save contacts to it using other types of linked devices, such as your secondary smartphone. That’s not all, though.
In the near future, the Meta-owned brand will also update WhatsApp’s clients for various platforms with the ability to save a contact exclusively within WhatsApp (save a contact in WhatsApp without saving it in your phone’s contact list). It will enable you to keep any contact away from your phone’s contact while also being able to start a conversation with them on the instant messaging platform. This feature will not only give you more flexibility in managing your phone’s and WhatsApp’s contact list but also enhance your privacy.
The story continues after the video…
In case you change or lose your smartphone, leading you to restore WhatsApp on another device, the contacts that you had saved to WhatsApp on your older device will appear on your newer device, which is pretty neat. WhatsApp has made these new contact-saving-related features with privacy in mind. The company has detailed how it is managing the privacy of your contact. You can read more about it here. Fortunately, there’s more to the story.
WhatsApp will soon get usernames
WhatsApp plans to soon introduce usernames on the platform. With that, if someone asks you about your contact information for messaging you on WhatsApp, you can just share your WhatsApp username with them and keep the mobile number private. This feature will not only enhance your privacy but also reduce WhatsApp’s dependency on mobile numbers, making it more like social media platforms that allow you to message people using their profile/username, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter.
Unfortunately, WhatsApp has not revealed the dates when it will roll out these features to the public. Follow us on Telegram or WhatsApp to be the first to get notified when that happens.
