WhatsApp Testing Using QR Codes To Add New Contacts

In the latest beta for WhatsApp, it appears that the company is now testing out a new feature for adding contacts where you can simply scan a QR code to add them to your WhatsApp contacts list. This is versus before where you would need to add the person’s phone number to your phone’s contact list before you could start chatting with them on WhatsApp.

In many ways, this feature is long overdue. Apps such as LINE and WeChat already support the scanning of QR codes to add contacts. This can help boost privacy because in those instances, you would not know the number of the person you’re adding, meaning that if you delete or block them, they can’t call you using your phone number.

It is also more efficient and faster as businesses could put up QR codes on their websites or storefronts and customers can scan them to add them to WhatsApp, instead of the method we mentioned above. According to WABetaInfo, they also found that users will have the option to revoke the QR code, meaning that if you don’t want that person contacting you anymore, you can delete access to their QR code.

That being said, this is a beta and it is unclear when the feature will be rolled out to more users, but hopefully it will be soon.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Android, Apps, iOS, Whatsapp