Since Whatsapp has been acquired by Facebook, it has been making serious moves towards making it work properly on the desktop, and making it more accessible. Recently they have launched the “WhatsApp Web” service, which allows you to use WhatsApp within your browser. – If you have a working smartphone, with WhatsApp installed, that is. – If you don’t have a smartphone, or if it is broken, you can still use our guides for PC or Mac to still get a workable version of WhatsApp on your computer.
What is WhatsApp Web?
WhatsApp web is the answer to all of our “prayers”. You simply scan a QR code in the browser on your computer screen, and voila, you get a fully working WhatsApp client right in your browser! Seeing is believing. It actually works really really well! As soon as you get a message on your phone, you can immediately see it on the screen of your computer as well! It just works alongside your phone and is completely synchronized with it.
If -like me- you’re in the office all day, behind your computer, it gets really annoying to pick up your phone all the time to answer WhatsApp messages. Well now you can just answer them directly in your browser! You can also directly send video’s, images and other attachments right from your computer. And if you like it really fancy, you can actually drag and drop the files right into your WhatsApp conversations!
What are the requirements?
WhatsApp Web does have some minor requirements, but these are easy to overcome. At the time of writing it only works in Firefox or Google Chrome. And again, you need a phone which already has WhatsApp installed.
Real WhatsApp desktop-app
At the time of writing, there are serious rumors about the release of a standalone desktop-app for WhatsApp, for both PC and Mac. This has not yet been officially confirmed, but deducted from the fact that there are translation strings related to a desktop app in the WhatsApp Translation website.
It is already possible to download such standalone apps, but they are basically a wrapped version of WhatsApp Web. These apps are made by third-parties and not by WhatsApp themselves. Hence you should use these apps with caution. We have not yet tested any of these third-party apps.
Follow WhatsApp For PC to stay updated on the official desktop client for WhatsApp
But for now, you can use WhatsApp Web!
Next page: How to use WhatsApp Web with my phone
