Losing your phone is not just an unpleasant experience but it makes one worried about the important and personal details which are stored in your handset. A lot of people use Whatsapp as one of their primary apps these days, and they get confused and wonder about what to do in case of their phone being stolen since one cannot deactivate the app remotely. So, here we are with a few steps rolled out by Whatsapp on how to keep your account safe when your phone is broken, stolen or lost.
Get your SIM locked: The very first step here is to lock your SIM card which can be easily done by calling up the customer care number of your telecom operator. One the SIM is locked, your Whatsapp will automatically stop working as there will be no facility of verification code being sent through SMS.
Either insert a new SIM of the same number or deactivate Whatsapp
Once you are done locking the SIM, there are two options to look forward to in the next step. You either can activate your Whatsapp account by having a new phone and inserting a new SIM card of the same number, or you can deactivate the WhatsApp account.
How to deactivate Whatsapp?
If you have decided to deactivate your Whatsapp, you may need to mail Lost / Stolen. The mail should be like 'Please deactivate my account and email on Whatsapp. In the email, you must write your phone number in the international format which is adding the country code in the suffix. For eg, India's country code is +91, so you will have to mention this before your number. Once you are done with the process, your contacts might not be able to see your profile photo and the messages which they will send can remain pending for 30 days.
Meanwhile, if the user is able to successfully restart your account, then he will get all the pending messages sent in the new phone. Also, he will remain in all group chats. If the user is unable to activate his WhatsApp account then the account will be completely deleted within 30 days.
It is worth noting that even after the SIM card is blocked and the services are disabled, WhatsApp can be used over Wi-Fi if the user does not send the account deactivation request to the company.
(With inputs from agencies)