WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will allow users to manage the synchronization of their contacts individually when they have multiple accounts on the same device, which will arrive with an upcoming update.
The messaging service allows you to have two accounts logged in on the same device, which allows you to, for example, switch between your personal and work accounts. This option is only compatible with devices that support two SIMs or an eSIM in addition to the physical SIM, because each account needs its own phone number.
In an upcoming update, WhatsApp will allow users to manage the way contacts are synchronized with each account, individually, as discovered by the specialized portal WABetainfo in the beta for Android (v2.24.18.14).
A new privacy section will allow you to enable or disable automatic synchronization, allowing you to disable it for the second account, for example. This is joined by an option to manually choose specific contacts to be synchronized for each of the accounts, and to choose to remove contact synchronization for multiple devices.
The synchronized contacts will also be protected by a new option – which can be activated – that will create a backup copy, allowing them to be recovered if the user changes devices.