WhatsApp is making an enormous change to the way in which it saves your contacts

WhatsApp sometimes depends on the smartphone deal with e book it runs on to carry and handle contacts. However that may be an issue for customers who lose their machine and fail to again up their telephone’s contacts, individuals who share telephones, or those that handle a number of accounts with separate contacts on one machine.

To start out, you’ll be capable of save contacts on WhatsApp Net and Home windows and Meta says that you simply’ll “ultimately” give you the option to take action on different linked units. Contacts saved in WhatsApp use a brand new “privacy-preserving” storage expertise known as Id Proof Linked Storage (IPLS) that Meta explains retains names and numbers encrypted and might solely be accessed by the person.

In an e-mail to The Verge, press consultant for WhatsApp Jessica Maskell wrote that the brand new contacts characteristic will probably be adopted by a brand new username system the place telephone numbers gained’t be required. Different end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Sign have additionally added a telephone number-free possibility for utilizing the app.