Facebook-owned WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging app with more than 700 million monthly active users, can now be used in a web browser. As first noted by Dutch website Droidapp.nl, the WhatsApp web app can be accessed at web.whatsapp.com.
At the moment, the web application works on Windows PCs and Android devices, but not in mobile or desktop Safari. However, it can be accessed on desktop Macs using Google’s Chrome browser, but not on iPhones and iPads running Chrome.
Support for more browsers is “coming soon,” says a notice on the website.
When you first access web.whatsapp.com using Google Chrome, you’re presented with a QR that you must scan inside WhatsApp for Android, Windows Phone or Blackberry to log in.
Which brings me to the biggest issue: support for QR scanning in the iPhone edition of WhatsApp will be added later so unless you have an Android/BlackBerry/Windows Phone device, you won’t be able to log in to the web app.
Also, your phone needs to stay connected to the Internet for the web client to work. To stay signed in on the computer, tick the “Keep me signed in checkbox.”
“Our web client is simply an extension of your phone: the web browser mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device – this means all of your messages still live on your phone,” WhatsApp CEO and co-founder Jan Koum clarified in a Facebook post.
On the downside, chances of WhatsApp web app running on iOS devices anytime soon are slim, to say the least. “Unfortunately for now, we will not be able to provide web client to our iOS users due to Apple platform limitations,” cautioned the CEO.
The ability to use WhatsApp in a browser, while working on a desktop, is a cool addition. I use Messages on my Mac with Text Message Forwarding set up on my iPhone to read and reply to both SMS and iMessages.
Viber already has a nice desktop app so the ability to use WhatsApp in a browser is a very much appreciated addition. That is, once they refresh the iOS client with QR code scanning in the first place.
Source: Droidapp.nl via @JoeyjReij
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