Texting oneself on a messaging platform is arguably one of the most convenient ways to jot down ideas before we forget them or save web URLs you wish to revisit. Platforms like Slack have a dedicated space to message yourself and Telegram lets you save messages for later, but now WhatsApp appears to have caught up, at long last. The Meta-owned platform now offers a convenient way to send messages to yourself.
Late in October, we saw WhatsApp selectively beta testing a way to start a new conversation with yourself on the app. WABetaInfo now reports the feature is widely rolling out on iOS with version 22.23.74 of the app. We are also seeing it on many of our Android devices after updating WhatsApp to version 2.22.23.77.
It may not seem very useful at first, but messaging yourself could also be a great way to transfer small files between multiple smartphones wirelessly, now that WhatsApp is beta testing Companion Mode on Android. Things get even easier if you add a shortcut to the chat with yourself on your home screen.
You can just hit the floating action button (FAB) for a new WhatsApp message in the lower right-hand corner. The new option to message yourself should be pinned to the top of your list of contacts. Reassuringly, WhatsApp says this chat with yourself is also end-to-end encrypted.
However, the feature appears to be arriving on devices in a phased manner. So, it could take a few days to show up on your devices. Until then, you could always create a group with one other person, remove them, and use that space to chat with yourself. Perhaps you could still use this option to have two separate chats with yourself, for whatever reason.