About time!
Now, you no longer have to drop everything you’re doing and look away from your computer screen to attend to your WhatsApp chats because the popular cross-platform messaging service is taking on one more platform – web. Yup, they’ve made it possible for you to reply your messages via its new web version (read: desktop).
So, the new web client was launched for Google Chrome specifically and Android, but you’d still need your phone to stay connected to the web for it to work. This is because the primary use of the app is still on your phone, and all user messages will still reside on the phone.
If you don’t have Google Chrome, why don’t you have Google Chrome? Do yourself a favour and download it here.
WhatsApp also took to their blog to explain:
Today, for the first time, millions of you will have the ability to use WhatsApp on your web browser. 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.
To connect your web browser to your WhatsApp client, simply open https://web.whatsapp.com in your Google Chrome browser. You will see a QR code — scan the code inside of WhatsApp, and you’re ready to go. You have now paired WhatsApp on your phone with the WhatsApp web client. Your phone needs to stay connected to the internet for our web client to work, and please make sure to install the latest version of WhatsApp on your phone. Unfortunately for now, we will not be able to provide web client to our iOS users due to Apple platform limitations.
We really hope you find web client useful in your everyday lives.
Useful? That’s an understatement. This is going to do wonders for those of us who spend more time in front of a computer than sleeping.
Right now, WhatApp’s web app is only compatible with Google Chrome in combination with the Android, Windows Phone, or Blackberry version of the mobile app.
The company plans to bring the same experience to iOS, although the timeframe is still unclear.
UPDATE (20th August, 11am):
After what seems like yonks of waiting, WhatsApp Web has finally been made available for iPhone users. iOS peeps, you can now access your WhatsApp messages via Chrome.
How? Head on over to web.whatsapp.com and scan the QR Code using WhatsApp on your iPhone and you’re good to go!
