Actually connecting to your phone number is one of the worst parts of WhatsApp. Change your number and you have to both manually migrate your account to the new number and potentially you lose all your history. Have 2 phones (like lots of people in Japan do) and you can’t communicate on one of them. I’ve even had it screw up and require SMS verification again (some how it lost it’s data?) while abroad which required me to switch sims just I could receive the SMS.
I’m glad FB bought them and I hope they basically just move all the users on to FB Messenger. At least FB messenger I can use from any browser so when I’m sitting at my PC/Laptop I can type replies easily on my keyboard instead of having to futs with my phone. FB messenger also lets you optionally register your phone number so people can find you that way.
