WhatsApp finally lets you save new contacts directly from the app

WhatsApp has announced a significant revamp of how it handles contacts. Until now, WhatsApp's contacts were limited to those on the phone on which it was installed. That can be a problem if you lose your phone and do not have backups of your contacts, for example. This can also be inconvenient for individuals who share a phone or who manage various accounts with different contacts on the same device.

Fortunately, WhatsApp has a solution: an integrated contact manager. This allows you to save contacts in the app so you don't lose them when you swap phones.

The first stage in deploying this new feature is to enable the option to save contacts on WhatsApp Web and Windows. Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, promises that you will ultimately be able to save contacts on other linked devices.

The contacts you save in WhatsApp employ Identity Proof Linked Storage (IPLS), a new privacy-preserving storage technology that, according to Meta, encrypts names and numbers and only allows you access to them.

The new contacts function will be followed by a username system, allowing you to use the app without linking your account to your phone number.