WhatsApp will soon offer a “companion mode” that will allow multiple smartphones or other devices to connect to a single account, according to a leak.

This will allow users to access their chats, send messages and make calls simultaneously from different devices.

A savvy user spotted the feature in an as-yet-unpublished article WhatsApp update currently being tested through the Google Play beta program.

It is a subscription service that gives Android users exclusive access to new versions of apps available on the Google Play Store.

Screenshots shared on WABetaInfo reveal that WhatsApp users will be able to pair the secondary device by scanning a QR code.

First, the user needs to download and open WhatsApp on the secondary device, then tap the overflow menu, which displays three dots, on the sign-up screen.

Then they can tap “Link device” and a unique QR code will be displayed.

Finally, they can open WhatsApp on their primary device, tap “Settings” and “Linked devices”, and they can scan the QR code on the secondary device.

This will initiate the transfer of chat histories and other data.

From there, any messages sent or calls made to that WhatsApp account will be received by both the primary and secondary device.

It gives users the option to access their chats from another device if the primary one does not have an active internet connection.

Users may also be able to update their status and manage their “broadcast lists” – saved lists of broadcast message recipients – from the secondary device.

The leak says you’ll be able to link up to four devices to a single account.

The first device with which a WhatsApp account is connected will remain the primary device and will be required to add a new companion device.

Users will only be able to change the phone number associated with their account from the primary device.

The feature is available in WhatsApp version 2.23.8.2, which is currently in beta testing, but its existence indicates that it will be rolling out to the Android app soon.

This unprecedented update also allows the user to lock their private chats so that they can only be accessed with biometrics, such as a fingerprint or passcode.

Testers can currently only make an Android device their secondary device, as the unreleased update can only be downloaded through Google Play’s beta program.

The leak adds that any messages or calls that have been sent or received through the companion device will be end-to-end encrypted.

The news comes just a month after WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart said he would rather see the app banned in the UK than remove end-to-end encryption.

The government may soon ban this security feature, which scrambles the content of messages to protect them from hackers, via the Online Security Bill.

The feature comes just a month after WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart said he would rather see the app banned in the UK than remove end-to-end encryption.

This legislation could force tech companies to scan the content of messages sent through their social platforms for illegal content.

However, this would likely force them to weaken or remove their own security measures.

WhatsApp cannot see messages sent through its own service and therefore cannot comply with requests from law enforcement to turn them over for counter-terrorism purposes or to identify and remove child pornography, for example.

Mr Cathcart said breaching the privacy of WhatsApp messages in the UK would do so to all of its users globally.

“There’s no way to change it in just one part of the world,” he said.

“Some countries have chosen to block it: this is the reality of shipping a secure product.

“We were recently blocked in Iran, for example. But we have never seen a liberal democracy do that.

He added: “The reality is that our users around the world want security.

“Ninety-eight percent of our users are outside of the UK. They don’t want us to reduce product security, and quite simply, it would be an odd choice for us to choose to reduce product security in a way that would affect those 98% of users. ‘

Mr Cathcart criticized the Online Safety Bill in September, saying it was “puzzling” that governments wanted to weaken security, not strengthen it.

The UK government has insisted that the bill “does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption” and that “we can and should have” both privacy and child safety.

But it also does not explicitly state how it would be possible to monitor the content of the messages and pursue their encryption, creating a “grey area”.