WhatsApp introduced at the moment a brand new characteristic that can enable customers to save lots of contacts throughout the app. That implies that even when you lose your cellphone or hyperlink a brand new machine to your major quantity, you will notice all of the contacts saved inside WhatsApp in a cloud storage.
Till now, WhatsApp relied in your cellphone’s contact ebook to sync contacts which might be utilizing the app. If a brand new particular person messaged you on the app, and also you needed to save lots of their particulars, the data could be saved regionally in your machine.
The brand new characteristic, rolling out quickly, helps you to retailer contacts on any machine, together with WhatsApp for the net and Home windows. You may select to sync contacts saved inside WhatsApp to your cellphone as nicely.
Final yr, the corporate began permitting customers to log into two WhatsApp accounts on one machine. Saving contacts linked to at least one WhatsApp account is useful if you wish to preserve private and enterprise contacts separate. Plus, when you share the machine with others, you’ll be able to preserve your individual contact record linked to your quantity.
WhatsApp stated that it developed a brand new encrypted storage system referred to as Id Proof Linked Storage (IPLS) to allow safe contact saving. When customers save a contact, the system generates an encryption key on the machine. The retrieval relies on the consumer authenticating its major machine id.
Moreover, the app can also be partnering with Cloudflare to signal any adjustments to the cryptographic properties of a consumer’s listing. In line with Meta, this step is to make sure that somebody has not edited contacts saved in WhatsApp.
The corporate additionally stated that the tech behind the contact storing characteristic would make it doable to save lots of contacts by usernames.
“Usernames on WhatsApp will add an additional diploma of privateness so that you simply don’t must share your cellphone quantity when messaging somebody,” the corporate stated in a weblog put up.
In Might 2023, a report by WABetaInfo highlighted that WhatsApp has been engaged on introducing usernames to the app. WhatsApp rivals, Sign and Telegram, each provide a approach for customers to share their username with somebody with out sharing their contact particulars.
