For a long time, WhatsApp has had a feature called Change Number, which makes it easier to do this, although it is not as functional as users would like it to be. But this will change soon, depending on the improvements you can already see in the beta version of WhatsApp.
WhatsApp will alert our contacts when we change numbers
Until now, the Change Number feature only allows you to perform two specific actions, migrate the entire contents of your account, and disable it from your old phone number. In the new beta version, it offers more options.
It gives users the option to choose whether or not to notify their contacts that they have changed the number. As we see from the images they share in WABetaINfo, we will have several possibilities:
We may choose to notify all contacts, accept some of them, or merely inform the people with whom we have an open chat. And if we are not interested, we do not select any options, and in the future, we will have to do the process manually.
One thing to keep in mind is that the groups to which we belong will be alerted to the change, regardless of which option we choose. The rest of the process required to make a number change to the account remains the same.
These new options can already be tested in beta version 2.18.97 for Android.