How to Use WhatsApp in Thailand: With Your Own Number
When you’re going on a holiday to Thailand, you’re going to want to buy a Thai sim card.
But how to use Whatsapp in Thailand while having a different number might become an issue.
Can you still use Whatsapp from your phone? With a Thai sim card?
The short answer is yes, Whatsapp is registered with your phone number when you installed it the first time and from that moment on, it’s connected to your phone, not per se your phone number.
So you can use other sim cards, while still using Whatsapp with your original number. But in this article, I’ll be going over some of your options when it comes to using Whatsapp when using a different number.
This is one of those common issues you face, that you haven’t thought of until you arrive in Thailand.
So I hope this helps and as always, if you have any questions about this, just comment below or send me an email.
I’m right here to help you out and if you happen to know someone who’s going soon, feel free to share this with them.
How to use Whatsapp in Thailand
Whatsapp is one of those apps that is mainly used in the Western part of the world. In Asian countries, the daily communication tool used is Line Messenger.
But when you want to stay in touch with friends and family back home, you can keep using Whatsapp Messenger, even when you install a Thai sim card.
But keep in mind that when you open Whatsapp messenger and if it asks you to use it with your new number, you click no.
Otherwise, your old number will be replaced with your new one and your contact won’t be able to reach you anymore.
If you would like to use Whatsapp messenger with your own number and your Thai number, there are a couple of ways to do this. So let’s go over them.
How to use Whatsapp with your local AND a Thai phone number
Since your Whatsapp app can only be used with 1 number, which is your current number, you can’t just connect your Thai sim card to Whatsapp and use them at the same time.
With 2 sim cards on 1 phone
What I would recommend, and this is the easiest way to work around this, is to install the Whatsapp Business app.
And this only works if your phone supports dual sim or if you’re using your own sim and an E-sim as your secondary number
This way you can use your regular Whatsapp messenger for your current phone number and use the Whatsapp business app to connect to your Thai sim card.
Download Whatsapp Business for Android
Or
Download Whatsapp Business for IOS
The 2 different apps work pretty much the same and when you register your Thai number, your account will be displayed as a business account.
Using Whatsapp in Thailand with a second phone
In case your phone does not support a second sim card, you can still use your current WhatsApp in Whatsapp Messenger, but you place your Thai sim into your phone and install the Whatsapp business app and connect your Thai sim card to this app.
This way, you can use both Whatsapp Messenger and Whatsapp Business at the same time.
But another workaround could be to get your hands on a cheap second-hand smartphone.
This especially comes in handy if you’re thinking about using the second phone as your wifi hotspot.
You then just place the Thai sim card in your second phone and set it up as a hotspot and you install Whatsapp Messenger on there to use with your Thai number.
No matter which option you go with, you can still use your current number while you’re in Thailand.
Personally, I just use 1 phone, but my iPhone 12 pro has just 1 sim card slot and 2nd E-sim option. But when I used my previous Sony Xperia, it came with 2 sim card slots.
So I know from experience that both of these options work great, so I hope this cleared some of your confusion.
