The only real down side to this method of installing WhatsApp on a Wi-Fi-only tablet is that as soon as you verify your account on the tablet WhatsApp will stop working on your smartphone.
That’s because a phone number can only ever be associated with one WhatsApp account. This might not bother you — after all, you don’t really need to view your messages on both your phone and your tablet, and you could simply verify the service on whichever device you’ll have to hand that day.
However, you can get around this and use WhatsApp on a phone and a tablet at the same time by using a different mobile number. If you have a second mobile number used for business then you’re laughing.
You could also take advantage of the free PAYG SIMs routinely offered by UK mobile operators, although these will expire after a few months if you don’t use them, and as soon as someone else registers that same number with WhatsApp you’ll have to start over.
It doesn’t matter which number you use for verification, as long as it is a mobile (rather than landline) number and that you have it to hand in order to answer the call and get the code.
If you live in the US it has been suggested that you can use a Google Voice number. We are unable to verify this, since only members with full accounts can receive calls using Google Voice, and that service isn’t available in the UK.
Another one for US readers is TextPlus, a free Android app that lets you send and receive texts and make phone calls on a tablet. Just send your phone a text from the tablet to find out what phone number you need to enter into WhatsApp. Again, however, we can’t verify this one.
You could also try a service that creates a disposable alias to your mobile number. There are a few free versions out there, but the two Android apps we tried created US numbers that weren’t recognised by WhatsApp.
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How to install WhatsApp and bypass its phone number
