It seems like a simple application that works perfectly just by adding a phone number and a Google Drive account to make a backup. But no: WhatsApp is much more complex than it seems at first glance. And it puts at our disposal different ways to recover the accountways that can save us from losing forever. I know this well.
Since I constantly talk about WhatsApp, and I need to keep up to date with everything that happens, I have registered my phone numbers with the platform so that talk to each other without bothering my friendstry out new features and even take users to the extreme without putting my main number at risk. Taking advantage of a recent trip to the United States, I opened a WhatsApp account with an eSIM from the country; a number that stopped working a week ago. Could I recover the account without having access to the SMS?
Set up your WhatsApp with your email address. It’s a lifesaver
WhatsApp Account Recovery via Email
Meta introduced the option of recover account by email once allowed adding the data to the user account: since November of last year it has been possible (after several months in beta).
With the email option, WhatsApp allows Restart session on a new mobileor recover the account on the same phone if the app was deleted, in three different ways:
- Upon receipt of an SMS. This is the most common one and has been in effect since the application’s inception. Are you logging in on a new phone? WhatsApp sends you a six-digit code.
- Via pop-up window in the old phone appIf you try to log in with your WhatsApp account open on another mobile, you will receive the six-digit code there.
- By sending an email. You don’t have the app installed on the other phone and you can’t receive SMS either? WhatsApp will send you the encrypted code to the email address you set up in your account.
If you don’t have any of the three active means (SMS, the app installed on another mobile or email), you can lose your WhatsApp account forever.
Adding the email address is a great way to ensure WhatsApp account recovery. In fact, I have been able to test this myself: if I had not added the email to my defunct US number, I would have lost that WhatsApp forever. Although I can no longer receive SMS, I will receive emails: email has a longer life expectancy than a telephone number. If only because we don’t have to pay for it.
How to add email address to WhatsApp
It doesn’t cost anything, it adds more recovery possibilities and it doesn’t imply a loss of privacy either: I always recommend adding the email address to the WhatsApp account. And it’s done in just a few steps, both from Android and from the iPhone:
- Open your WhatsApp application.
- Go to settings (top three dots on Android, bottom gear on iPhone).
- Go to “Account”.
- Scroll down to “Email Address.”
- Click on “Add email” and enter the email.
- Click the next button and you will receive a confirmation email. Complete the process and you will have your email configured in WhatsApp.
Default, The app will still send you an SMS if you need to recover the accountAnd, if you have any problems with that number, you will still have access to your WhatsApp by receiving the six-digit code by email.
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