How WhatsApp’s Guest Chats Feature Might Work
According to a report by feature tracker WABetaInfo, several Android and iOS users can access the Guest Chat feature. It is available with the latest WhatsApp Beta update for the respective operating systems. As the name suggests, the platform can generate a temporary guest session that enables basic messaging functionality, instead of requiring the recipient to create a full account.
The in-development Guest Chats feature on WhatsApp
Photo Credit: WABetaInfo
With Guest Chats, guest participants can join a chat through a shared link or invitation. Once they enter the conversation, they can send and receive messages within that chat without needing to sign up for WhatsApp. Chats with such users will have a Guest label, enabling easy identification that the participant does not have a registered account.
As per WABetaInfo, users can create the link from the Invite a friend section or from the bottom of the contacts list within the app. Once generated, the link can be sent via SMS. It can also be copied and shared through other platforms such as email or different messaging apps. They can open the link on either a mobile device or a desktop browser.
The feature tracker mentioned that guest chats are a temporary messaging solution and therefore support only a limited set of features. For example, such conversations do not support group conversations, media sharing, or attachments like photos, videos, documents, GIFs, stickers, and voice messages. Apart from this, voice and video calls aren’t available, either.
Guests can be blocked in the same way as regular WhatsApp accounts, as per WABetaInfo. Guest chats reportedly maintain the platform’s end-to-end encryption protections. The feature tracker said that when a guest joins the conversation, WhatsApp Web generates a unique identifier that is used to create the encryption key for that chat.
According to WABetaInfo, Guest chats also expire automatically after 10 days of inactivity. If the conversation expires, the inviter will need to generate a new invite link to continue messaging with the same person.
The feature was first revealed to be in development in October 2025. At the time, however, it was not available even to beta testers of the app. The feature tracker claims that select Android and iOS WhatsApp Beta users now have access to it. It is still said to be in development and could be publicly available with a future version of the app.
