[Wear OS General] bernarbernuli:
WhatsApp Multi-Device Functional (also with the phone turned off or away from it).

The latest versions of WhatsApp Beta already allow you to use the real multi-device mode, that is, you will be able to use WhatsApp on the watch in the same way as on the phone, even if the phone is turned off. Whatsapp has actually implemented this new feature for tablets, however it works perfectly on Wear OS. You will be able in the same way as on the phone:

Send and receive messages on the watch

Send, receive and view photos, videos, locations...

Send, receive and listen to voice messages.

Call and receive WhatsApp voice calls.

I think the only limitation is that you cannot make video calls, this is because the watch does not have a camera

Steps:​

The steps to follow to use the full version of WhatsApp are as follows:

Download latest version of WhatsApp from APKMirror, you must download armeabi-v7a variant.

Install the APK file in the watch from the phone using the Bugjaeger method, or from the PC with the help of Wear OS Tools.

On the watch, go to Settings > Apps & Notifications > App Permissions > WhatsApp and grant all permissions (all except camera), also go to Settings > Apps & Notifications > App Notifications > Show All > WhatsApp and enable notifications.

On the watch, reduce the screen density to 75 DPI, there are several ways to do this in addition to the following: From Wear OS Tools, with Wear Installer 2 or by directly typing the code

adb shell wm density 75

Open the app, select "Agree and Continue", and then the process of linking the device to your phone via a QR code at the bottom of the screen begins. If the QR code is not displayed, and you are prompted to enter a phone number, exit the app and re-enter the app repeatedly until the QR code appears (make sure to set the screen density to 75 DPI).

On the phone, go into WhatsApp and go to the 3 dots on the top right and select "Linked Devices" and scan the QR code on the watch (read below the considerations about this). Once you have paired, you can set the screen size back to default.

adb shell wm density reset

WhatsApp will close and will not allow you to open it directly from the WhatsApp icon, you must use a "bridge" app (next step) or receive a message to be able to open WhatsApp.

Install "Open WhatsApp On Wear" app. Open the app, Whatsapp runs, and select the contact. From here you can view the entire conversation and send messages, voice notes, images, videos, locations or initiate a WhatsApp call.

Considerations:

You do not need to install the Beta version on your phone.

By lowering the density a lot so that the QR code can be seen on the entire watch screen, it can be difficult to scan the QR because it is so small, you can turn up the brightness to see if it scans it, or you can also take a screenshot from the phone companion app or with Wear OS Tool, the screenshot is sent to the phone/PC, and then scan it from the phone/PC screen.

The bridging app 'Open WhatsApp On Wear' mentioned above will open WhatsApp, allow you to select a contact and show a single character (a watch emoji). From here, you can type additional text and then tap the Send button, which is just visible. This sends a text message to your contact. You can also make voice calls from here.

When opening WhatsApp in this way, you won't see the microphone option to send a voice-note. To see the microphone icon, delete the watch emoji by backspacing using the on-screen keyboard. You can now dictate and send a voice-note.

When receiving incoming WhatsApp notifications on the watch, you receive duplicate notifications (one from the phone WhatsApp replicated on the watch and one from WhatsApp installed on the watch). In order to suppress the double notification:

- On Galaxy Watch 4/5, go to "App Notifications" in developer options, set WhatsApp as blocked, now you will only receive the WhatsApp notification from the phone.

- On Pixel Watch, disable WhatsApp notification permission on the watch using the Watch companion app on the phone.

- On Wear OS 2 devices there is not yet a way to disable one of the notifications, because if you disable it from the companion app, both notifications are disabled and you do not receive any notifications.

When you receive double notifications, they are differentiated at a glance on the notification curtain that the WhatsApp notification installed on the watch has the WhatsApp icon with no fill in the letter "W", instead the phone WhatsApp notification icon has fill.

​