If you’ve ever changed numbers on WhatsApp or if you know someone who has, what usually happens is you send out a mass message to all your contacts (or those you want to stay in contact with) to let them know that you’re changing numbers. This can be tedious and you could miss out a contact or two in the process.
However in a recent sighting by @WABetaInfo, it seems that WhatsApp could be getting a new feature where your contacts will automatically be notified whenever you change your number. That being said we should note that this feature was spotted in the beta for Windows Phone, which means we can’t be sure if it will arrive for iOS or Android, although we guess it makes sense that it would, possibly at a later date.
WhatsApp beta for Windows Phone 2.17.130: new change number feature, to notify your contacts about your new number (DISABLED BY DEFAULT) pic.twitter.com/FpZWHH3MS3
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) April 15, 2017
Now as you can see in the screenshot to the right, users can choose to notify all of their contacts or only those that they are chatting with. There does not appear to be an option for users to pick and choose which contacts they want to share it with, but maybe those options could be added at a later date.
There is no word on when this particular update will be pushed out, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for more details regarding its availability, especially on other platforms.