WhatsApp has just unveiled a new feature that completely changes your contacts backup.
If you use WhatsApp frequently, you may have already lost one or more of your contacts. The reasons behind this mishap can be numerous, but it is usually a change of phone or number.
Until now, WhatsApp only allowed you to save a contact in one way: on your device. By adding a new contact to the application, it was then stored locally on your smartphone, whether you added it manually or via its QR code. Soon, it will already be possible to add a new contact using the web application or the WhatsApp software on Windows. But this isn’t the best feature yet!
In a blog post posted at the end of October 2024, WhatsApp announced a big change for contacts. From now on, when you decide to add a contact to the application, you will first have to fill in their information (last name, first name, phone number), but also choose where you want to store it! By default, WhatsApp will now save your contact within your profile on the application. By doing this, your contact will still be available on your profile even if you change devices!
Of course, this option is not obligatory. It is always possible to deactivate it if you prefer to keep your contacts warm in your smartphone and only your smartphone. To do this, you will need to check the “sync contact on phone” option offered to you when adding your contact. This avoids keeping professional contacts on a personal phone for example, but you will lose these same contacts if you lose the phone where they are saved, or if it no longer works.
Unfortunately, this feature is not yet available at the time of writing. This option was spotted by several Internet users several months ago and the application seems to have worked on this function for a while to develop it. WhatsApp has, however, indicated that adding contacts to your account will be available “very soon”. We can bet that this is an update coming before the end of 2024.
WhatsApp continues to update with new features. The company behind the application has notably started adding music to the statuses and also seems to leave clues as to the addition of pseudonyms instead of the first and last names of each contact. This should provide more privacy, but you will have to wait to benefit from this option.