Blog

The Meta-owned popular instant messaging application WhatsApp has reportedly added a new feature that allows users to start chats with unknown people by searching for their phone numbers, without saving them in the address book. It is available to users who install the latest versions of WhatsApp for iOS and Android.

“WhatsApp released a highly anticipated feature that allows users to initiate chats with unknown people by simply searching for their phone numbers. Users always experienced certain limitations when trying to initiate a chat with someone on WhatsApp without first saving their contact information, and they had to rely on third-party apps or the official click-to-chat APIs, which might be more complicated to use for some users,” WABetaInfo reported.

With this feature, the Meta-owned app is making it easier for users to start conversations without saving contacts to their address book. The screenshot shared by WABetaInfo revealed that p within the application.

To discover if the feature is available to your WhatsApp account:

– Search for a phone number by opening your contact lists.

– If you use WhatsApp for iOS, tap the button “start new chat” in the chat list

– Next, enter the unknown phone number within the search bar.

– In case the contact is on WhatsApp, you will be able to open the chat with them.

Since this feature is not exclusive to the iOS app, Android users can follow the same steps to quickly search and open a chat with unknown phone numbers.

The report suggested that this feature is highly beneficial. Users frequently save contacts in their address book when they receive calls from unknown phone numbers, so they can identify them by checking their WhatsApp profile photos, but they might forget to remove these contacts later.

In addition, saving an unknown contact means that they might be able to see your profile photos. Searching for the phone number without saving it in the contact list can be considered an additional privacy measure and it definitely marks a significant step forward in enhancing the messaging user experience, WABetaInfo said.

It is important to note that the feature to quickly open a chat with unknown contacts by searching for their phone numbers is not a beta feature as it is also available to users that install the latest stable updates of the app.