Using WhatsApp is essential for millions of people around the world and has become one of the usual forms of communication. For work or leisure, to send messages to your mother or your best friend, your boyfriend or girlfriend. But even if we use the app there are always some tricks that you may not know. For example, that you can use WhatsApp with a landline phone number.
Can we use a landline phone in the messaging app? Yes, but we must bear in mind that we need a verification code that normally comes to us by SMS, although it is not the only option because we can also receive it by call. This is what allows us to have a fixed number to use WhatsApp. It is useful if you have several numbers or if you have a company phone and want to have it linked to the landline and not to the mobile.
Applications like Telegram allow us to have several accounts on the same smartphone, but WhatsApp makes it somewhat more complicated but not impossible. We can have one application with the mobile and another with the landline, using both at the same time with different versions.
Advantages of using your landline
The main advantage of using the landline phone is that we can have two WhatsApp accounts on the same smartphone. We can use our usual phone number on a mobile and our landline number on the same with another application. We would have a number in normal WhatsApp and another in Business. This will allow us to have two accounts without the need to have two SIM cards, for example. One personal and one company or will depend on the needs of each.
Another advantage is that anyone who has access to a landline can do so without having to have a mobile contract. In other words, we can make it possible for your teenage son or daughter to send or receive WhatsApp when they are at home on their tablet or mobile phone with WiFi, but without the need for them to have their own phone number. Or we can do it with the company telephone if we do not have a work mobile but an establishment where you work does have a landline: a shop, a workshop… We will not need to have a mobile line so that they can contact us.
Sometimes we have a landline phone included in our rate but we don’t even use this and we don’t have a connected device at home. Operator rates such as O2 offer a fixed line to all their customers and not all of them use it to contact friends or family. In that case, we can take advantage of this number to have WhatsApp.
Use fixed in WhatsApp
To do this, the first thing you have to do is go to Google Play or the App Store and download the WhatsApp Business application. There are two options: that we use this application for the landline and conventional WhatsApp for the mobile or that you simply use this for the landline number on a work telephone, for example.
In the case of wanting to keep both, we can leave both applications on our mobile, while if we only want to use it with a landline number, it is enough to have WhatsApp Business on our device. But keep in mind that these tricks will not work with the conventional app: it will tell you that the number entered is not valid and you will not be able to verify the code in any way.
It is essential, obviously, to have the landline phone connected. At the time of installation, we must indicate that instead of using the number of our SIM card, we want to use another number and indicate the landline number. That is, when we see the phone verification screen we must enter the landline. Since we cannot receive the SMS with the activation code on the landline, we will have to wait the time established by WhatsApp to check if we receive the SMS and then request a call to receive the activation code.
The steps, summarized, are as follows:
- We download and install WhatsApp Business on the mobile phone
- We follow the steps of installing the app
- We will arrive at the verification code screen
- Enter your landline here
- You will see two verification options: SMS or call
- The SMS will be sent by default, but you will not receive it, it is a fixed
- You should let a minute pass
- Once the time passes, tap on the call option
- You will receive a call with an answering machine that will tell you six digits
- Write down the six digits and fill in the WhatsApp verification screen
As you can see in the images, the call option will be available from the minute. Once the 60 seconds are up we can play “Call me” but not before. We will see that the countdown ends and that the text appears dark.
Therefore, we must be close to the landline that we have indicated in WhatsApp Business, since we will automatically receive a call to that telephone number indicating the code that we must enter to activate WhatsApp Business on our phone and thus be able to enter Business.
Once inside, the first thing we will see is an interface identical to that of WhatsApp Messenger, the only difference that we find at first glance is that the green color is different and some functions are different. It is important to know that the name that we put on WhatsApp Business cannot be changed later. Although it is an app for companies, they will not ask us for any type of certificate that proves that we are and you can activate it directly with your home landline if you need to have two accounts for whatever reason.
Other options
There are other options that allow us to have WhatsApp without having a linked phone, but they do not always work. For example, we can have a virtual number that allows us to activate WhatsApp using the previous method. A virtual number is obtained through an application or a website where we can generate a telephone number that does not belong to anyone, a number that we cannot normally use to call or send calls but that does allow us to receive SMS. Thanks to the possibility of receiving SMS we can receive the verification code that allows us to activate it and use it without having to use our personal mobile.
These numbers are usually available for a few hours at no cost, although after a while we have to start paying for them. Even so, we will only need two minutes to activate WhatsApp by following the previous steps through SMS. If not, we can use the landline of any trusted person we know, a landline that we have contracted with our operator because it is included but that we are not using, for example.
