

WhatsApp allows you to share photo, video, GIF, and text updates that disappear after 24 hours. Newer settings allow you to delete messages you’ve sent within the past two days, and send photos and videos that the recipient can only view once. If you don’t like the sound of all that, you might consider switching to Signal, a messaging app with end-to-end encryption and much stronger privacy protections.īut you can shield some of your activities on WhatsApp from the company and other users by limiting access to location data, information about when you’re online and have read messages, and group chats that include you without your consent. Anyone with access to your cloud account will be able to read every message you’ve sent through the app. Your friends can learn that you’ve seen a message but neglected to respond just yet.Ī police officer with a warrant can gain access to the people you’ve communicated with via call or text.Īnd if you choose to archive your WhatsApp data on iCloud or Google Drive, your messages won’t be encrypted there unless you enable end-to-end encrypted backups. Depending on the internet speed and the amount of content your WhatsApp might have, it will take a few minutes to load.For example, if you don’t tighten your privacy settings, your boss might notice if you’re checking your WhatsApp messages instead of working on a presentation due in an hour. Now you can access all your WhatsApp chats on the companion smartphone. On your primary phone, click on link a device option from the settings menu (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)

Click on the three dots in the top right corner and then select “ linked devices.” Click on “ link a new device,” authenticate, and then scan the barcode on the secondary device. Next, go to your primary phone that has a WhatsApp account. Now, you will see a big barcode with a WhatsApp logo in the middle.

On the top right corner, click on the three dots and select “ link a new device.” This barcode has to be scanned from the primary device (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express) Open WhatsApp on your companion device, click on “ agree and continue.” Now, you will see an option to enter your country code and phone number. Download/update WhatsApp to the latest available version (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar / Indian Express)
