Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I've been using the browser version for a while. I don't care much for whatsapp but it is a convenient group chat app and free calls worldwide isn't so bad.
 
And so far it works great. No need to scan the code all the time like with the extension. Yay
 
To download the free app, WhatsApp users have to go to whatsapp.com/download from their desktop browser. Once the app is downloaded, users will be presented with a QR code. To scan the code, users will have to use the WhatsApp app on their phone, going into the app's settings and clicking "WhatsApp Web" to activate the QR code scanner.

Really? To use the app you have to scan a QR code? How silly.
This reminds me WeChat, a Chinese ripoff of, the combination of Twitter and whatsapp, more like the later one.
To use wechat on Mac, you also need to scan QR code to log in. And no info is stored on Mac whatsoever.
 
It surprises me that some people here don't even know what WhatsApp is. Are they being sarcastic?

Here in Europe WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app, to the point even where is becomes ridiculous. Even iPhone users use WhatsApp to communicate with each other, it's crazy. I only use iMessage between my dad and my wife and that's it.

I hate WhatsApp but I had to embrace it a long time ago. You're not going to move the masses to use anything else.
 
I guess the Whatsapp people are against the App store and MS's program store. No surprises as to why.

Also this does nothing for those withuot Whatsapp on their phone. This makes the desktop nearly useless. Being about to use on a desktop this without being able to use it on your mobile would be a great idea. But this is the typic arrogance of Whatsapp. Either you own the latest phone OS or you can't use it.

If my friends did not use this, neither would I. The app itself is totally toxic and cancerous. In what it is and how it's run.
 
Last edited:
Will go it a go.

Most people I know are using it as its cross platform.

I could careless if FB owns it, if you believe your data is safe with anyone, you are fooling yourself. Use common sense and never put online anything you consider private . FB can read all my what's app messages, be a complete waste of thier time.....same as someone at Apple could go through my iPhone backup, they will get nothing.
[doublepost=1462946141][/doublepost]
We can't win. If we text you, your messages are green suggesting you aren't using iMessage which would be upsetting to some iPhone/iOS users. iMessage isn't cross platform so we can't use that. So let's use another rich texting client that uses the internet instead of SMS (like iMessage) and it's a burden.

Apple doesn't seem to have any plans to bring iMessage to other platforms, so I think it's in everyone (who isn't an iMessage user) interest to support platforms that work across different OSes (both mobile and desktop).
iMessage also shot itself in the foot after many issues during its implementation , especially around people who switched between ecosystems, I know many Apple users who to this day do not trust iMessage and use what's app or others instead.
 
It surprises me that some people here don't even know what WhatsApp is. Are they being sarcastic?

Here in Europe WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app, to the point even where is becomes ridiculous. Even iPhone users use WhatsApp to communicate with each other, it's crazy. I only use iMessage between my dad and my wife and that's it.

I hate WhatsApp but I had to embrace it a long time ago. You're not going to move the masses to use anything else.

right? i only got two people that use iMessage even though most got an iPhone and those two people arent from my Country.

What's WhatsApp and why do we need another online chat app? Must be cool if your 13 year old.

everyone and their grandma uses it over here. Abuelo
 
When are they going to move everything to the cloud so we can get proper apps for the iPad and the desktop instead of using workarounds like this? It’s frustrating that I still cannot solely use my iPad without fearing some important WhatsApp message might have been sent to my charging iPhone in another room.
 
It is basically a Chromium browser wrapped in an application bundle. It is literally the exact same thing as the web.whatsapp.com client, only with a Dock icon and separate push notifications instead of HTML5 web notifications. It is also really huge, the app bundle alone is 135 MB(!) big and that does not count the cache that it might create.

When are they going to move everything to the cloud so we can get proper apps for the iPad and the desktop instead of using workarounds like this? It’s frustrating that I still cannot solely use my iPad without fearing some important WhatsApp message might have been sent to my charging iPhone in another room.

Probably never. Their CEO reaffirmed this only recently. They have no ambitions for independent clients.
 
Too late, all my friends and coworkers are using Telegram! Bye bye
 
Sad.
Sad because a gazillion dollar company couldn't deliver a cross-platform interface for years
Sad because the 'official' browser plugin has a button in the settings menu for a paypal donation to the writer's yahoo address.
Sad because it still needs your phone to do the actual syncing
And the saddest thing is that - because they're putting resources into building this web-app stuff - it seems the Messenger-Whatsapp marriage cq integration is probably not going to happen soon
 
hmm.. doesn't mention anything if they integrated Signal into the desktop version of whatsapp
 
What did he do to be called a ”as*hOle POS”?
He's no better or worse than any of these insufferable attention whore tech CEOs that claim they're out to "change the world." They're nothing but a front in a successive line of user data collecting / ad revenue generating tools.
 
He's no better or worse than any of these insufferable attention whore tech CEOs that claim they're out to "change the world." They're nothing but a front in a successive line of user data collecting / ad revenue generating tools.
When you do not pay for the product, you are the product. You are free to not use it, if you do not wish to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mr Fusion
2 years too late. i already moved on to telegram
Exactly and it doesn't require a phone to be used.
Unfortunately there are family and friends that only use WhatsApp. I don't have a device that can run a WhatsApp app.
Communication on the internet used to be open and accessible, now it is all proprietary and closed.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.