WhatsApp is testing a new feature that will let users message without using their phone for the first time.
At present, WhatsApp is linked to a user’s phone. Its desktop and web apps need that device to be connected and receiving messages.
However, the new feature will let users send and receive messages “even if your phone battery is dead”.
Up to four other devices – like PCs and tablets – can be used together, WhatsApp said.
To begin with, the new feature will be rolled out as a beta test for a “small group of users”, and the team plans to improve performance and add features before enabling it for everyone.
End-to-end encryption – a key selling point for WhatsApp – will still work under this new system, it said.
Several other messaging apps already have such a feature, including rival encrypted app Signal, which requires a phone for sign-up, but not to exchange messages.
The feature has long been requested by WhatsApp users – of which there are a reported two billion.
That is because the current version “uses a smartphone app as the primary device, making the phone the source of truth for all user data and the only device capable of end-to-end encrypting messages for another user [or] initiating calls”, the company said.
WhatsApp Web and other non-smartphone apps are essentially a “mirror” of what happens on the phone.
However, that system has significant drawbacks familiar to many regular users, as the web app is known to frequently disconnect.
It also means that only one so-called “companion app” can be active at a time – so loading WhatsApp on another device will disconnect a WhatsApp web window.
“The new WhatsApp multi-device architecture removes these hurdles, no longer requiring a smartphone to be the source of truth, while still keeping user data seamlessly and securely synchronised and private,” the company said.
On a technical level, the solution was giving every device its own “identity key”, and WhatsApp keeps a record of which keys belong to the same user account. That means it does not need to store messages on its own server, which could lead to privacy concerns.
On Monday, police Capt. Francois Moller revealed in court at Oscar Pistorius’ trial that he had been able to extract some 35,000 pages’ worth of text messages from Reeva Steenkamp’s phone.
Capt. Francois Moller said that 90% of the messages between the couple “were loving”, but he had picked out exceptions.
Correspondents say some of these messages could prove extremely damaging for Oscar Pistorius.
Reeva Steenkamp’s messages paint a picture of the athlete as a jealous and possessive boyfriend prone to anger.
The texts between the couple also suggest Oscar Pistorius asked Reeva Steenkamp to keep quiet over an incident in January 2013 where he allegedly fired a gun at a restaurant – another charge he denies.
Reeva Steenkamp’s messages paint a picture of Oscar Pistorius as a jealous and possessive boyfriend prone to anger
“Angel please don’t say a thing to anyone… I can’t afford for that to come out,” Oscar Pistorius wrote.
“I was not flirting with anyone today I feel sick that you suggested that” (Reeva Steenkamp, January 27, 2013)
“I’m scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and how you will react to me” (Reeva Steenkamp, January 27, 2013)
“I do everything to make you happy and to not say anything to rock the boat with you” (Reeva Steenkamp, January 27, 2013)
“I can’t be attacked by outsiders for dating you and be attacked by you – the one person I deserve protection from” (Reeva Steenkamp, February 8, 2013)
The court heard Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp called each other “Angel” and “Baba”
“Angel please don’t say a thing to anyone…Darren told everyone it was his fault. I can’t afford for that to come out” (Oscar Pistorius, January 11, 2013, following an alleged shooting incident).
Oscar Pistorius trial in Pretoria has heard today that his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp sent him a text message saying: “I’m scared of you sometimes.”
The message was sent after Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp had a row when he accused her of flirting with another man – weeks before he shot her dead.
A police captain has been testifying about the couple’s mobile phones.
Oscar Pistorius denies deliberately killing his girlfriend of three months, saying he thought she was an intruder.
The trial has now entered is fourth week, with the prosecution expected to wrap up its case before Friday.
Capt Francois Moller said he had been able to extract some 35,000 pages’ worth of messages from Reeva Steenkamp’s phone.
He told the court on Monday that 90% of the messages between the couple were loving, but he had picked out exceptions.
Oscar Pistorius has said he has forgotten the password to his iPhone and investigators went to the US shortly before the trial began to meet Apple officials to try and gain access to it.
Reeva Steenkamp sent Oscar Pistorius a text message saying she was scared of him
In one message sent on January 27, 2013, Reeva Steenkamp wrote: “I’m scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and of how you react to me.”
Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp had attended an engagement dinner and left abruptly.
In another message she wrote: “I can’t be attacked by outsiders for dating you and be attacked by you – the one person I deserve protection from.”
Reeva Steenkamp’s messages paint a picture of the athlete as a jealous and possessive boyfriend.
Earlier, one of Oscar Pistorius’ neighbors said she had heard both a man and woman scream on Valentine’s Day 2013.
Anette Stipp, whose husband gave evidence earlier in the trial, said she heard the screams and gunshots at around 0300 local time on the day of the shooting.
She said she heard two groups of gunshots with a woman screaming in between.
Anette Stipp testimony has closely matched that of other neighbors and witnesses, including her husband.
The defense has previously claimed that Oscar Pistorius screams like a woman and that neighbors had confused his screams with those of Reeva Steenkamp.
“It was a definitely a woman screaming,” said Anette Stipp.
She also said that the light was on in the bathroom cubicle, where Reeva Steenkamp was when she was shot.
This contradicts evidence given by Oscar Pistorius, who said that it was “pitch dark” where the shooting took place.
On Sunday the trial was extended and will now run until the middle of May. It had been due to end this week.
The prosecution says it will call upon four more witnesses before closing its case.
The defense team, led by Barry Roux, will then call upon its own witnesses, including Oscar Pistorius himself.
Last week the trial heard evidence from ballistics experts and computer forensic teams who described the sequence and timing of the shots that killed Reeva Steenkamp.
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