How to Change WhatsApp Phone Number

One of the challenges then you will meet when coming back from overseas is to switch overseas phone number to local phone number. The biggest implication might be losing contacts from the overseas friends and acquaintances. But it's not such a big deal with Facebook, Line and Email which is email-based but how about WhatsApp? It is phone number based and if you have a new number, you probably have to lose the existing contacts and group chats. Sounds daunting?

Luckily with the new updates from WhatsApp, you can switch the phone number ID now with 3 simple steps.

1. In WhatsApp, go to Settings>Account>Change Number>Next

2. Type in your old Country Code and old phone number

3. Type in your new Country Code and new phone number

[Tip 1] All your Group Chat will be still maintained automatically. Basically, they will just remove your old number and add your new number in the Group Chat. Because of this, your mobile will have a long buzz upon successful switch.

[Tip 2] Before changing the number, you might want to change the WhatsApp status of your old phone number to something like "Changed my number and WhatsApp to XXXXX" (remember to add in the country code too). This is good for those friends who are still holding your old number and want to contact you again later in future. Or you might opt to broadcast a message to everyone.

[Tip 3] Some of the contacts might not be recognized by WhatApps now and hence showing you a string of numbers. This is because you have changed your phone number country code and so WhatApps could not recognize it. What you can do is to add the overseas country code into the overseas contact numbers in "Contacts". For example, Australian phone numbers should be entered as +61411223344 instead of 04 1122 3344.

For more information, you can have a look at Whatsapp FAQ