- WhatsApp is rolling out the ability to initiate conversations with new, unknown numbers without needing to save them in your contact book.
- To text an unknown number, search for the number in the New Chat screen.
WhatsApp remains the IM app of choice for millions of users worldwide. In regions like Asia, connecting with everyone you know on WhatsApp is common, as pretty much everyone uses the service. However, if you are contacting someone new for a quick or temporary need, you still have to save their number to your phone for their contact card to show up for texting on WhatsApp. It seems that Meta finally wants to change this, as the service has now begun allowing users to open chats with unknown phone numbers.
In the past, whenever you wanted to send some unknown number a quick text, you’d have to save them in your contact books. My contact book at one point was filled with saved numbers of delivery persons and drivers just because I once needed to send them my location.