Currently, you could use the app on only one unit, and thats mostly your phone.
Last night, WhatsApp said that its rolling out this feature to a limited number of users.
Plus, it detailed how it plans to implement this feature while preserving your privacy.
Whats the challenge for secure multi-gadget communication?
Having multiple devices connected to an account for a chat app is not new.
Telegram, for instance, uses its cloud to let you use the app on multiple devices independently.
However, these messages are not protected by end-to-end encryption a marquee feature for WhatsApp.
Currently, WhatsApp uses your phone to generate keys for end-to-end encryption.
Your desktop clients are just mirrors for that.
For multi-gadget communication, that method is not effective.
So WhatsApp needs to store secure combinations of identities of all your linked devices.
But for the multi-unit function, youll also need to provide biometric authentication.
How WhatsApp plans to facilitate secure communication with the multi-machine features?
However, when you have multiple devices linked to an account, this architecture needs to change.
When youll send a message to a friend, WhatsApp will first send it to a server.
The company says that the server doesnt store any of your messages.
For securing calls, the app plans to use a protocol called Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP).
you could read more about how WhatsApp plans to use encryption across devices inthis whitepaper.
That’s one heck of a mixed bag.
He likes to say “Bleh.
That’s one heck of a mixed bag.
He likes to say “Bleh.”
