WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app and probably a lot of you use it, but do you know how to change the phone number attached to your account? A tip to know if you ever need to change your phone number and still want to keep your current account.
WhatsApp works very differently from other messaging apps. Your phone number serves as your identifier. All conversations and newsgroups to which you belong are associated with it and this data is encrypted. It is therefore not possible to import your history to a new number without following a very specific procedure.
Change your WhatsApp phone number: how to do it?
Nothing prevents you from installing WhatsApp and starting from scratch with a new number. However, if you plan to abandon the old number, it is better to recover your data on the new one. Otherwise, you will no longer be able to access your history, to the files exchanged, you will no longer see the news and status of your friends and they will not see yours either.
Unless, of course, you send the number to all your contacts so that they can save it. If you don’t prefer this option, here’s how to change your WhatsApp number while keeping your old data. But before we start, let’s clarify that it is essential to have access to your old account to initiate the process of changing your number.
You keep the same smartphone
If you want to change your WhtasApp number using the same phone, it’s even easier. Insert the new SIM card into the smartphone and follow the next steps. The old account must still be active at the time of manipulation.
- Open WhatsApp on your smartphone.
- Press the three dots up, right then on Settings.
- Go to Account > Change number. Read the message displayed on the screen then press Following.
- Enter your old phone number then the new number in the two fields provided and press Following.
- Choose whether or not you want to notify your contacts of the change of number. We strongly recommend that you do so. You have the choice to send a notification to All contacts, of Contacts with whom you have ongoing discussions Where Personalize (choose the contacts who will receive the notification). Regarding the groups you belong to, the notification will be sent to each of them, no matter what you choose.
- Press on Ended.
- Whatsapp will ask you to confirm ownership of the new number. It is essential to be able to receive an SMS or a call there to validate the process.
You change your smartphone
If you are using the new number on another phone, you will still have to perform the steps described in the previous section. Once again, it is essential to have access to your old WhatsApp (not necessarily the old phone). Once the number has been changed from the old WhatsApp, all you have to do is set up WhatsApp on the new phone and restore your backups.
Also read: How to transfer WhatsApp conversations to another smartphone
- Install WhatsApp on the new smartphone.
- Enter your new phone number and confirm that you are the owner (by text or call).
- Restore Google Drive backup.
This last step assumes that you had enabled backup in Google Drive on the old account. Better to have a recent backup.
