WhatsApp is working on a secret COMPANION MODE, leak claims 

WhatsApp will soon offer a “companion mode” that will allow more than one smartphone or other device to log into a single account, a leak has revealed.

This allows users to access their chats, send messages and make calls simultaneously from different devices.

A smart user saw the feature in an unreleased feature WhatsApp update currently being tested through the Google Play Beta program.

This is a subscription service that gives Android users exclusive access to new versions of apps available on the Google Play Store.

Screenshots shared on WABetaInfo reveal that WhatsApp users can pair the secondary device by scanning a QR code.

First, the user needs to download and open WhatsApp on the secondary device and then tap the overflow menu, which shows three dots, on the registration screen.

They can then tap “Pair a device” and a unique QR code will be displayed.

Finally, they can open WhatsApp on their primary device, tap “Settings” and “Paired Devices,” and scan the QR code on the secondary device.

This will initiate the transfer of chat history and other data.

From then on, any messages or calls sent to that WhatsApp account will be received by both the primary and secondary device.

It gives users the option to access their chats from another device if the primary device does not have an active internet connection.

Users may also be able to update their status and manage their “broadcast lists” – saved lists of broadcast recipients – from the secondary device.

The leak says you can link up to four devices to one account.

The first device that a WhatsApp account is logged into remains the primary device and is required to add a new companion device.

Users can only change the phone number associated with their account from their primary device.

The feature is available in WhatsApp version 2.23.8.2, which is currently undergoing beta testing, but its existence indicates that it will soon be rolled out in the Android app.

This unreleased update also allows the user to lock their private chats so that they can only be accessed with biometric data, such as a fingerprint or a passcode.

Testers can currently only make an Android device their secondary device, as the unreleased update is only available for download through the Google Play Beta program.

The leak adds that all messages or calls sent or received through the associated device are end-to-end encrypted.

The news comes just a month after WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said he would rather ban the app in the UK than remove its end-to-end encryption.

The government may soon ban this security feature, which encrypts the content of messages to protect them from hackers, through the Online Safety Bill.

This feature comes just a month after WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said he would rather ban the app in the UK than remove end-to-end encryption

This legislation could require technology companies to scan the content of messages sent through their social platforms for illegal content.

However, this would likely force them to weaken or abolish their own security measures.

WhatsApp cannot see messages sent through its own service, so it cannot comply with requests from law enforcement to, for example, transfer them for anti-terror purposes or to identify and remove child abuse material.

Mr Cathcart said that undermining the privacy of WhatsApp messages in the UK would do so to all its users worldwide.

“There’s no way to turn it into just one part of the world,” he said.

“Some countries have chosen to block it: that’s the reality of sending a safe product.

“For example, we were recently blocked in Iran. But we’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that.’

He added: “The reality is that our users around the world want security.

“Ninety-eight percent of our users are outside the UK. They don’t want us to lower the security of the product, and to be clear, it would be a strange choice for us to choose to lower the security of the product in a way that would affect those 98 percent of the users. ‘

Mr Cathcart was critical of the online security law in September, saying it was ‘mysterious’ that governments wanted to weaken security, not strengthen it.

The UK government stressed that the bill “does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption” and that “we can and must have both privacy and child safety.”

But it also doesn’t explicitly state how it would be possible to check the content of messages and continue encryption, creating a “grey area.”