[Giant Lizard]

I had a Samsung Galaxy S4 and last year I've bought a Galaxy S7, which is the one I'm using now.

But since my Galaxy S4 is still working perfectly, I'd like to use it when I go to holidays, or festivals or any other party, so that if I break it or someone steal it from me it would matter much less.

Everything works fine, except WhatsApp: I've read that swapping phones too often would eventually mean to have the account blocked. Is it true?

I know I could also use WhatsApp Web from Google Chrome for example, but that would mean to keep the S7 in my home, turned on and always connected to internet. If I have to go many days to holidays that wouldn't be nice.

Is there any way to do this? As you can see I don't actually need to use the same account on 2 phones AT THE SAME TIME, I just want to swap easily from a phone to the other one.

Thank you in advance!

[SpookDroid]

Not sure about the account block, but I can see it being so for security reasons (not something you wouldn't be able to undo by contacting them, but still). Unfortunately you cannot use the same Whatsapp number in two mobile devices at the same time. You can't even do it on a tablet.

BUT you can use the web version of Whatsapp like you said. A little tricky to get it to work on your phone (you have to set it to request the desktop version of the page and you might have to clear cookies every time you close the browser if you wanna use it again), but it works. HOWEVER, this means the phone with the account must be on and have a valid data connection. So while you can use your S7 account on your S4 this way, this still needs the S7 to be on and connected somewhere, otherwise the web page doesn't work.

Another option is to use a VNC app to connect remotely to your other phone (and use it as if you were using the phone itself, not just for Whatsapp). Just like the 'solution' above, the original phone must be on and connected, though.

Also bear in mind that switching phones for the same number in Whatsapp wipes out your local copy of messages and media, so unless you backed them up to a file or cloud service, they will be gone (and restoring them to the new target device to make them transfer).

[Giant Lizard]

That's sad it seems there is no easy solution. I don't understand why WhatsApp make it so hard to do something so natural. I mean, with Facebook for example I can use it from whatever phone with no problems.

[Javier P]

That's sad it seems there is no easy solution. I don't understand why WhatsApp make it so hard to do something so natural. I mean, with Facebook for example I can use it from whatever phone with no problems.

Yeah, that's probably the biggest problem with WhatsApp, one phone number - one account - one device (web version doesn't really count as multi-device). I use WhatsApp a lot and never managed to find a safe way to use my main account on my backup phone. In other apps, like Facebook, Hangouts or Skype, your account is not directly linked to your phone number and it's easier opening them for different devices.

This is one of the reasons why I've been trying to convince my main contacts to switch to Telegram. You can use the same account on different devices and you can even have different accounts on the same device. To be honest, just a few of them migrated Most people doesn't like change, I guess

[Javier P]

Oh, and about locking your account. Migrating all your chats to a different phone is quite easy now if you have the right backup settings. The thing is how often you're going to do it. You should be fine if you migrate 2-3 times every year, but if you're thinking of migrating every month or even more frequently there's a big chance they are going to block your account.

[Giant Lizard]

Yeah, that's probably the biggest problem with WhatsApp, one phone number - one account - one device (web version doesn't really count as multi-device). I use WhatsApp a lot and never managed to find a safe way to use my main account on my backup phone. In other apps, like Facebook, Hangouts or Skype, your account is not directly linked to your phone number and it's easier opening them for different devices.

This is one of the reasons why I've been trying to convince my main contacts to switch to Telegram. You can use the same account on different devices and you can even have different accounts on the same device. To be honest, just a few of them migrated Most people doesn't like change, I guess

People tried to convince me to do the same thing, but I always refused as well mostly because everyone use WhatsApp, so I wouldn't use Telegram with anyone.

Anyway, the real problem of WhatsApp it's not just the fact that it's connected to the phone number. I mean, when I use my backup phone I also switch my SIM card, so I still have the same number. The problem is that WhatsApp is connected to BOTH your number AND your phone!

[Giant Lizard]

Oh, and about locking your account. Migrating all your chats to a different phone is quite easy now if you have the right backup settings. The thing is how often you're going to do it. You should be fine if you migrate 2-3 times every year, but if you're thinking of migrating every month or even more frequently there's a big chance they are going to block your account.

yes, that's what I've read too and that's why I'm not going to swap every time I'd like. I go out at least once per week and I'd like to use my backup phone in all these occasions but I'm sure if I switch phone that often my account would be blocked in no time.