Running DYOWA in parallel mode on Samsung and Xiaomi phones

DYOWA, short for DELTA YOWA, is a community-built fork of WhatsApp that ships with a parallel app mode baked into the APK. Aussie Android fans in Brisbane and Perth have been giving it a run because it clones the messenger without needing the second-space tricks that stock firmware forces on you. For people juggling a work line on Telstra and a personal number on Optus, it sidesteps a lot of the usual friction.

The catch is that Samsung's One UI and Xiaomi's MIUI both sandbox installed apps in their own way, so the setup looks slightly different depending on which handset you carry. What follows is a phone-by-phone walkthrough of the parallel mode inside DYOWA, plus a few tips that apply no matter which brand sits in your pocket.

What parallel mode means inside DYOWA

Unlike the built-in dual messenger on Samsung or the Dual Apps toggle on MIUI, DYOWA creates a true secondary instance of the mod itself. That means themes, privacy settings, and the locked-chat vault are independent of your primary install. You get a separate icon, a separate notification shade, and a separate storage folder under Android/data.

This is closer to running multiple WhatsApp accounts on a single phone, which is exactly how heavy mod users tend to treat their devices. The parallel flag is enabled by default in recent DYOWA builds, but you still have to grant a handful of permissions before it behaves itself.

Pre-flight checks on Samsung and Xiaomi

Before anything else, make sure your handset is on at least Android 8. Most Samsung Galaxy A and S series sold through JB Hi-Fi and the big three carriers meet that bar, and Xiaomi's Redmi and Mi lines usually do too. Confirm you have at least 600 MB free, since DYOWA carries its own media engine.

DYOWA is signed by an unofficial developer, so you'll need to flip on install-from-unknown-sources for whichever browser or file manager you use to grab the APK. On Samsung, that lives behind Settings → Apps → Special Access → Install Unknown Apps. On Xiaomi, MIUI tucks it under Settings → Privacy → Special Permissions → Install Unknown Apps. Australian carriers don't restrict this toggle, but a few workplace MDM profiles on corporate devices do block it outright, so check with your IT team if you're on a company-issued Galaxy.

Getting Samsung ready for a second instance

Samsung's One UI is friendly to modded APKs, but only after you clear a few hurdles. Open Settings → Apps, tap the three-dot menu, and confirm that "Pause activity if unused" is off for your file manager. Otherwise Android will throttle the APK installer in the background, and you'll be left wondering why the install hangs halfway through.

Next, head into Settings → Battery → Background Usage Limits and put DYOWA on the never-sleep list. Without that, the parallel instance gets killed whenever the RAM fills up, which happens a lot on the budget Galaxy A-series. A few Sydney-side power users have reported missed calls on their second number until they toggled this.

Walking through Xiaomi MIUI setup

MIUI is fussier than One UI, mostly because Xiaomi layers its own battery optimisation on top of Android. After sideloading DYOWA, you need to open the Security app, tap Battery, then disable battery saver for the mod. Otherwise the parallel copy drops off the network within minutes of the screen switching off.

You also need to enable Autostart for DYOWA under Security → Autostart. Xiaomi blocks background launches by default to save power on its lower-tier Redmi phones, and that includes parallel mod instances. Once both flags are flipped, the second account stays online reliably even when you switch back to your primary number for a brekkie run to the cafe.

Linking the second number

With the parallel flag enabled, open the DYOWA clone and enter your second mobile. DYOWA asks whether it should treat this install as a parallel account, which it then mirrors with its own chat database. Verification arrives by SMS or voice call; if your carrier routes both numbers through the same Telstra or Vodafone SIM in a dual-SIM slot, you may need to disable call waiting briefly so the verification ring lands on the right line.

Once verified, the second instance behaves like any other mod install. You can swap between accounts from the app switcher without logging out, which is the whole point of parallel mode, and notifications show up under their own entry in the shade so there's no risk of replying from the wrong account.

Privacy tweaks, themes and backups

DYOWA inherits the same theming engine as TMWhatsApp, and the TMWhatsApp theme gallery is a useful reference if you want to see what styles are available before installing. You can import a theme from storage, set per-chat wallpapers, and hide the blue ticks for individual contacts rather than blanket-applying them across both numbers.

Backups behave independently for each parallel instance, which means restoring one number won't wipe the other. Schedule nightly backups to your SD card on Samsung, or to internal storage on Xiaomi, and you'll avoid losing anything when an update drops. If you ever need to roll back to a more stable mod while you wait for a fix, the older GBWhatsApp build is a handy fallback for testing.

Quick setup checklist

• Toggle Install Unknown Apps for your browser and file manager before sideloading
• Disable battery optimisation for DYOWA in both Android settings and the MIUI Security app on Xiaomi
• Allow Autostart under MIUI, and remove the app from Battery → Background Usage Limits on Samsung
• Verify the second number with the SIM that's actually tied to it, not your primary line
• Schedule separate backups for each instance before pulling the trigger on any update

Grab the latest DYOWA build from the site's download page and you'll have two WhatsApp accounts ticking over on a single handset before you finish your arvo coffee.