Has your phone number already been used by the old owner to create a WhatsApp account? Here’s what you need to do
When you activate a SIM card, one of the first things we do is create a new WhatsApp account. As you know, if you decide to change your phone number you need to associate a new WhatsApp profile, otherwise you will no longer be able to talk to your friends. But what happens if the number we were assigned already belonged to another person who had their own account on the messaging application? In this case, things get complicated and you have to be patient before you can use WhatsApp. Let’s go in order.
With the exponential growth of SIM cards, operators have been forced to assign new customers numbers that are now unused. The practice is becoming more and more common and sometimes you may receive calls from friends or acquaintances of the old owner. So far nothing too problematic, but things start to get complicated when it comes to WhatsApp, especially if the old owner had created a profile on the messaging account and forgot to delete it. Here’s what to do if you already have a WhatsApp account associated with your number.
WhatsApp, why is the picture associated with my profile wrong
How can you tell that your SIM card already has a WhatsApp profile associated with it? Very simple, from your profile picture. If when you create your account on the messaging application, your friends see a different profile picture instead of the one you entered, it means that the previous owner of the phone number did not delete his WhatsApp profile.
Do you need to worry? No. This is a pretty common thing for the app and that’s why the staff has already found a solution to the problem. To eliminate the confusion resulting from recycled phone numbers, the technicians monitor the situation of inactive accounts. If a profile remains unused for more than 45 days and then returns to work on a different smartphone, for WhatsApp it means that it is a recycled number. And for this reason, the procedure automatically starts that deletes the data of the old account and leaves room for the new one.
Another important thing to know: the old holder of the WhatsApp profile will not under any circumstances get hold of your data and your conversations. Your privacy is safe.