14 DAY TRIAL // If you’ve been using WhatsApp for more than a month or so, you probably know already that chatting with an unsaved number is a major pain in the neck.
At this point, if you want to send a message to someone whose number is not in your list of contacts, the only way to do it is to add it.
In other words, you’re not allowed to chat with someone whose number isn’t already saved in your phonebook. As ridiculous as this sounds, WhatsApp only allows users to chat with saved contacts.
It’s easy to figure out just how annoying this limitation really is. I chat with unsaved numbers on a regular basis, and more often than not, I’m the one that must start the conversation. The only way to do this is to add the number to my phonebook, and it goes without saying I sometimes forget to remove the contact when the conversation is over.
New feature in the works
WhatsApp apparently knows how ridiculous this approach currently is, so the company has reportedly started working on some sort of a fix that would only partially resolve the annoyance.
WhatsApp is now developing a new menu that shows up when tapping an unsaved phone number that’s shared in a conversation you’re part of. This menu allows users to chat with the owner, start a phone call, or add them to contacts, all without leaving WhatsApp.
At this point, if you tap an unsaved member, WhatsApp launches the native Android dialer app.
Needless to say, this only resolves the glitch partially because the phone number must be shared in a WhatsApp conversation. If you receive the number in another app or in an email, you still have to add the contact to your phonebook and only then start the conversation.