Whatsapp Web

Does not work for iOS yet? Edit: "At this time, WhatsApp Web is available only for Android, Windows Phone, Nokia S60, BlackBerry and BB10 smartphones." https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/web/28080003

Mikeb85• 12 years ago

Apple's browser is probably lacking necessary features. They have been much slower adopting features than the competition.

danielhunt• 12 years ago

It's not the browser ... the iOS app doesn't yet have the capability to scan the QR code to link your account to the website

mattnewton• 12 years ago

That doesn't seem likely to me: what features does iOS not have right now, that this is likely to use? It seems more likely if they are targeting chrome only they did it to avoid the support overhead of making it work in multiple browsers.

wklauss• 12 years ago

They have been much slower adopting features than the competition.

It's not a matter of speed. This seems to be using WebRTC for handling communications between the phone app and the browser. Safari has chosen not to implement WebRTC and so far it is still not a proper standard so I can see why. Google, as the developer of WebRTC, will obviously support it right away. Note that no browser other than Chrome can be used as well.

jamesrom• 12 years ago

Wait, you know that WebKit is spearheaded by Apple? And that there's two completely unrelated problems here:

1. The frontend only works on Chrome for desktop (it appears only because it uses the non-standards track filesystem API)

2. The backend service and mobile app does not work with iOS (it appears because it uses background networking)

They may seem related, but they aren't.

balls1874• 12 years ago

<del>Assumption: WhatsApp for iOS is in the 5 business day App Store approval queue.</del>

josu2• 12 years ago

"Unfortunately for now, we will not be able to provide web client to our iOS users due to Apple platform limitations."

And even if they could, I'd doubt that they'd make Facebook wait 5 days for their app to be aproved.

bolix• 12 years ago

"Unfortunately for now, we will not be able to provide web client to our iOS users due to Apple platform limitations." http://blog.whatsapp.com/614/WhatsApp-Web

benjlang• 12 years ago

Not working for me yet.

cvburgess• 12 years ago

So what exactly is whatsapp web?

[edit] Found the answer at https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/web/28080003

WhatsApp Web is a computer based extension of the WhatsApp account on your phone. The messages you send and receive are fully synced between your phone and your computer, and you can see all messages on both devices. Any action you take on the phone will apply to WhatsApp Web and vice versa.

hawkice• 12 years ago

I'm using Chromium, says it only supports Chrome. Can we shave some characters off the regex here?

_ciz9• 12 years ago

As a temporary solution, you could spoof the user agent by running chromium from command line: chromium-browser --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686) AppleWebKit/535.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/39.0.1132.47 Safari/536.11"

radicalbyte• 12 years ago

I thought that Whatsapp didn't store (or read) messages, and that was why it was so secure / awesome?

So how can they do this?

nichochar• 12 years ago

You're mistaken, they do store. And don't hide it.

Also they don't even encrypt, they send messages over the air in plain text. YAY $16 billion!

derefr2• 12 years ago

Didn't WhatsApp integrate TextSecure?

dethstar• 12 years ago

https://whispersystems.org/blog/whatsapp/

subliminalpanda• 12 years ago

Hopefully that will change soon.

https://whispersystems.org/blog/whatsapp/

higherpurpose• 12 years ago

Ugh. This is why I was saying before that I'm quite worried that Whatsapp itself didn't come out and say publicly that it uses TextSecure's end-to-end protocol, and that we should stop praising them for "adopting end-to-end encryption" until they actually say they did (for which I got downvoted).

rdtsc• 12 years ago

How is dropping a message to someone who is not online or cannot be reached at that instant because of network connectivity awesome?

v512• 12 years ago

I think they still don't store it, What there are doing here is syncing all messages from phone to web when paired. FAQ clearly mentions that web version connects with phone to sync data - https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/web/28080002

rakoo• 12 years ago

You must be mixing it with Snapchat.

Note that AFAIR the reason wasn't so that it was more secure, but to remind users that Snapchat is about the instant and so that users wouldn't expect it to store all of their lives, only the right now.

A cheap and easy way to keep your storage needs low, if you ask me.

fabrice_d• 12 years ago

So it seems to do some pairing between your phone and chrome? Not really what I call a web version. A real web version would run on, you know, any reasonably recent web browser.

derefr2• 12 years ago

I think the point of the pairing itself is more just to make sure people only have as many WhatsApp accounts as they have phone numbers. Not sure why it's Chrome only, though.

D_Guidi• 12 years ago

I suspect that pairing is needed only to not use an account other that phone number

arcticf0x• 12 years ago

Doesn't work, apparently you need to scan the code from your phone's WhatsApp which you can't due to lack of that functionality.

ramonck• 12 years ago

Doesn't work for iOS! Better not release it then! :)

Aldo_MX2• 12 years ago

iOS users should already be resigned that they'll always receive updates later

dpacmittal4• 12 years ago

Why not?

therealmarv• 12 years ago

installed newest Android version. Does not work here. No option for scanning QR

balls1874• 12 years ago

Did you try:

Menu -> Whats App Web?

dpacmittal4• 12 years ago

There's no option called 'WhatsApp Web". I'm on 2.11.491

KhalilK• 12 years ago

Same here.

balls1874• 12 years ago

This is sweet.

I like being able to chat with my friends while I am at work so I'm glad to see WhatsApp bringing web access.

Hopefully iOS support is around the corner, but given how often iOS gets preferential treatment over Android, I'm okay with my Droid friends getting first crack at it.

kylec• 12 years ago

The title should more correctly say "Whatsapp for Google Chrome". You can't really say it's for "web" if Chrome is the only browser you support.

profmonocle• 12 years ago

Maybe they're doing client-side encryption in JavaScript? Apparently native JS crypto is incomplete in Firefox: http://caniuse.com/#feat=cryptography

adrianlmm• 12 years ago

Really?

http://imagebin.org/328080

handsomeransoms• 12 years ago

FYI Google Chrome warns that imagebin.com "might contain malware".

ameyjah• 12 years ago

I like it. This was certainly needed; especially when I am working.

applecore• 12 years ago

WhatsApp Web only works in Google Chrome.

It's 2015, and we're still using browser compatibility checks.

Animats• 12 years ago

What did they do in an add-on that won't work in Firefox? Chrome add-ons and Firefox add-ons are rather close; I have one that has about 80% common code.

conqrr2• 12 years ago

This is truly useless, It needs your phone to stay on to access the web version. And why is it a web version if only Google Chrome is supported.

orliesaurus2• 12 years ago

Its awesome, I can save my phone battery by switching it off and leaving only whatsapp on! boom!

conqrr2• 12 years ago

No its not. Your phone needs to stay on the whole time.

orliesaurus2• 12 years ago

Damn, you're right! That's a bit of a downer :(

pycassa• 12 years ago

Really.. I use a dumb feature phone and the only thing I want in is whatsapp..

Thought of signing in once with a smart phone and using it forever and continue using my dumb phone..

kiuiras2• 12 years ago

Which version of Android app do you use?

2.11.498 seems don't work for me. There isn't a WhatsappWeb option.

dpacmittal4• 12 years ago

How did you even get 2.11.498 (which seems to be newer than mine but still not latest)? I'm trying to download and all I get is 2.11.491.

kiuiras2• 12 years ago

From Play Store. I think version varies with device.

On WhatsApp site there's still your version.

kiwidrew2• 12 years ago

I'm running 2.11.498 (just updated) on my Android phone and the menu option is there. The new web.whatsapp.com just started working for me this morning.

(I'm on Chrome OS.)

hugovie• 12 years ago

I have been waiting for this move for a long time, but, badly, doesn't support iOS yet :-S

Nux• 12 years ago

They should have waited with the announcement until they got more browsers supported. This is really frustrating.

cpach• 12 years ago

Sure, but they gotta start somewhere.

dbailey5• 12 years ago

Pleeeease don't hijack my back button

thinkt4nk• 12 years ago

Heck of a roll-out, guys.

  - only works on one browser
  - requires interop with the mobile app
  - supporting mobile app version on Android only
  - supporting mobile app version not universally available on Android, presumably because of Google Play registry population or something.

SifJar• 12 years ago

Also works with mobile apps for WP, BB and BB10. Only iOS support is missing, really.

kaishiro• 12 years ago

And every single other major browser.

raonyguimaraes2• 12 years ago

This is apparently not available in my country (Brazil) ...

Whatsapp version 2.11.476 updated on 16 jan 2015

I guess it's only limited to US and other regions.

dpacmittal4• 12 years ago

Used a US VPN to see whats the latest version and its 2.11.491, which is the same as installed version on mine (India). However, I still don't see the option to scan QR code.

corin_5• 12 years ago

I'm on WP8 which I imagine you probably aren't, so this may not be useful to you, but in case it's relevant across platforms, or in case there are any WP8 readers:

a.) I updated when I saw this HN submission, a 17mb update, to version 2.11.634 (it didn't updated automatically, but was available when I checked my app store)

b.) Opening whatsapp after the update showed it had updated (I could see some other features that had changed), but I couldn't find the web option. After killing whatsapp and restarting it, it then appeared on a menu where it hadn't been before

tiffanyh• 12 years ago

I know everyone is complaining about Chrome only support, but the more important question we should be asking is what technology stack are they using for the web client?

It's well documented that Whatsapp is a Erlang shop.

Did they stay with using Erlang for the web as well ... or did they switch to another technology like Nodejs, etc?

arianvanp• 12 years ago

They seem to be using React for the View rendering. Websockets for data. Bluebird for promises. Google's CryptoJS for end-to-end encryption. MomentJS for time formatting.

The code seems to be pretty modular There are some nice gems in it like EXIF format decoding etc. This is nice to reverse engineer :)

skynetv2• 12 years ago

I changed the UA on Frirefox, then whatsapp web started working. Firefix even showed desktop notifications.

BTW, you cannot have two web sessions going on at the same time. Once you start a new session on one browser, other detects and prompts

"WhatsApp Web is open on another computer or browser. Click “Use Here” to use WhatsApp Web in this window."

also, it needs phone to be connected to whatsapp service. So it sync from phone to your browser.

sandy23• 12 years ago

I dont see whatsapp web on whatsapp menu of my computer.

programmer_dude• 12 years ago

I had to restart my phone to see the whatsapp web menu option. I am on Android.

corin_5• 12 years ago

A lot of negativity, but despite its limitations I already love it. (OK love's too much, but it's a big improvement for me at least.)

I don't use whatsapp with a huge number of people, but some of them I talk to daily on it. When we're both behind a computer (work hours, sometimes outside them) we'll often move to Skype to be able to type quicker. Skype's pretty horrible on phones (for me and most people I know), so usually prefer whatsapp when not using PCs/laptops.

Sure it's not a huge change, but just being able to type quickly when sat at my laptop, and not needing to keep grabbing my phone to see what's been said, is a great change for me. One that I was complaining about just the other day without realising this was around the corner.

In case anyone's interested, here's what it looks like for me in Chrome (nothing unexpected really): http://i.imgur.com/90C0v9V.png

(Added bonus in the required app upgrade for WP8: message delivery status icons now shown in list of conversation, rather than just once you are inside a conversation - I know this feature was on at least one platform months ago, maybe all others, and it's [very slightly] annoyed me since I moved to Windows)

tracker12• 12 years ago

Have you considered Google Hangouts? I tend to use that for most of my chatting, so never really "got" whatsapp.

corin_5• 12 years ago

I don't know anyone who uses them - or at least, nobody has ever suggested I use them. And I haven't been interested enough to try myself to consider converting other users. I've got enough communication routes already without adding a new one unless it can either replace one of the current ones (I won't get all my friends who use whatsapp to switch so it won't do that) or I need it to talk to a subset of people I know (not the case currently with hangouts - this was why I started using whatsapp in the first place, though)

redthrow• 12 years ago

Hangouts is pretty good. Now it doesn't require you to have Google+ account, and (unlike Whatsapp) you don't _need_ to use a phone number that's tied to a telco, and it handles multiple accounts pretty well.

josu2• 12 years ago

While I agree with all your points it's still the shittiest implementation that I have seen. I have been using Telegram Web, and it works delightfully without having to connect my phone to the web. Line has it's own desktop program since at least a year.

I have no idea why they decided to go this route, none whatsoever. It looks more like a hack than an official solution. I've been following Whatsapp since 2010, and to me it always has looked like a bad company. They haven't really taken care of the security of their platform until they have reached 500 million users. The more I read about Whatsapp, the more I think that they just got lucky.

corin_5• 12 years ago

You're right it does feel like a hack, but one that works fine for me at least. I guess my comments were those of a user thinking about how it works for me, not a technical critique at all.

jonalmeida• 12 years ago

This is a very similar implementation with how Blackberry Blend is implemented. Although, the core value was for security. It's definitely hard to understand what was the motivation for WhatsApp to go this route or what their future plans are.

vincvinc2• 12 years ago

not needing to keep grabbing my phone to see what's been said, is a great change for me. One that I was complaining about just the other day without realising this was around the corner.

Just try, with some friends, to switch to Telegram for a day or two. It is like Whatsapp but has open source clients for most platforms that always sync between them. I have the Windows and Android clients open most of the time and don't even think any more about whether I have to contact this or that friend by typing on my laptop, desktop or phone.

There's other arguments like the open API, the team's dedication to security from the start, the ability to invite people to chat with you via a URL/username (so they won't know your phone number), it has an open sticker system (using WebP), etc. but the way the clients work seamlessly is why I can't stop bothering those people I still start up Whatsapp or Skype for to make them switch (and quite a few have already).

corin_5• 12 years ago

I'll try it out (installing app on phone now), but can't see it coming close to replacing either Skype or WhatsApp. Skype because in many of my circles is the de facto for business communication, WhatsApp because it's so simple (no need to add new contacts - they're already there!)

On the subject of telegram's "dedicated to security from the start" - I'm sure I remember (though could be either wrong or outdated) that it's encryption was mocked by experts when it launched, which is (I think) why I never bothered with it before now. Is it actually as secure as it wants to be?

Zepplock• 12 years ago

Back button is not working in Chrome on Mac

Aldo_MX2• 12 years ago

I appreciate most an Open API the same way Telegram[1] does. But at least, this is a -somewhat acceptable- first step.

[1] https://core.telegram.org/

tracker12• 12 years ago

While maybe not directly on topic, I've never seen the point of Whatsapp over plain SMS, or for that matter any of the other chat apps that can do way more (Google Hangouts, Skype, etc)... what's the point?

seppo0010• 12 years ago

In some countries the price per SMS is not null. Also you have received verification. And group messaging with some features that are not available in MMS. Also end to end encryption.

kiwidrew2• 12 years ago

It works quite well. They've done a great job at following Google's "Material Design" prescriptions while -- surprisingly -- not actually using the Polymer framework. First time I've seen that.

The app loads some interesting libraries:

* CryptoJS 3.1.2 (for AES and HMAC-SHA256)

* punycode 2.1.4

* bluebird 2.5.3

* React 0.12.2 (with addons)

It's entirely possible that they really are doing end-to-end crypto...

WaterSponge• 12 years ago

They did this recently:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/11/18/whatsapp_...

isarang• 12 years ago

v2.11.498 working

dutchbrit2• 12 years ago

Strange that this isn't on the frontpage, anyhow, for people who can't get it working for Android, try the following APK: http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/whatsapp-inc/whatsapp/whatsapp-... (yes, it's not the newest release but they did a rollback after this version removing the web menu item). Reboot your phone after installing.

PauloManrique• 12 years ago

It's 2015, we use multiple devices, phones, tablets, computer, smart TVs, and they still didn't figure that out?

Come on, ICQ, Telegram, Groupme, Viber and tons of other apps have multiple clients for multiple devices.

Sadly people take too long to change, or else WhatsApp would be dead already.

ravinder• 12 years ago

To make the 'Whatasapp web' option show on the latest Android version on my phone I had to do this:

1. Back up your data (Whatsapp Menu > Settings > Chat Settings > Backup conversations)

2. Go to 'App Info' for Whatsapp had to 'Clear data' (Settings > Applications > Applications Manager > Whatsapp)

3. Restart phone

4. Access whatsapp -> enter your phone number -> restore from backup

5. The 'Whatsapp Web' should appear under menu now

lpino• 12 years ago

Worked for me, Android 4.3 + Galaxy S3. Thanks!

achim123• 12 years ago

yes this works, but will reset all stats :(... i restored my titaium backup... i still missing the Web Entry in menu :(

mkremer90• 12 years ago

Why does this completely destroy the back button?

praeivis• 12 years ago

Why it's called web client if: WhatsApp Web only works in Google Chrome and do not work with iOS?

jaseemabid• 12 years ago

There is a very good criticism here: http://andregarzia.com/posts/en/whatsappdoesntunderstandthew... and I have to agree to all of it.

andor• 12 years ago

Can anybody explain how this is supposed to work in combination with the end-to-end encryption that's allegedly implemented in the Android client? I can see all my Android to Android conversations in the Web client.

leet• 12 years ago

Unfortunately it is not a desktop client and you have to open the browser all the time to open it.

Use this to get a desktop client on mac

http://lifepluslinux.blogspot.in/2015/01/whatsapp-web-deskto...

JUAN1234563• 12 years ago

It was written using reactJS

JUAN1234563• 12 years ago

It was written using reactJS!

JUAN1234563• 12 years ago

how this web hide the scripts tags? and how hide the scripts (js) from the resources tab from the rdeveloper tools?

lightonphiri• 12 years ago

I have been using whatsapp-purple---a WhatsApp protocol implementation of libpurple [1] for some time now and it works really well.

That being said, accessing it from within a browser window has it's advantage. I currently have to install whatsapp-purple on all machines I use & syncronising chatlogs via Dropbox has it's challenges...

[1] https://github.com/davidgfnet/whatsapp-purple

timlindinct• 12 years ago

I'd love to see them open source this react material design implementation.

Whatsapp Web

Related Stories