Technoglitch
Core Member
"Like WhatsApp Web, our desktop app is simply an extension of your phone: the app mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device," the company said.
That means you still need to have your phone around to log onto the desktop app. Once you've downloaded the new client, it opens up to show the same screen from web.whatsapp.com. You need to scan the QR code displayed on the screen with your phone before you're let through.
For what's it worth, the new app - essentially a Node-Webkit wrapper - comes with a few keyboard shortcuts, and does have low memory consumption. On Windows, you can archive a chat by pressing Ctrl + E, mute it with Ctrl + Shift + M, change the read status of message with Ctrl + Shift + U and delete it with Ctrl + Backspace. Press Ctrl + F and you'll be taken directly to the search bar, while Ctrl + N and Ctrl + Shift + N help in starting a new chat or group respectively. On Mac, the shortcuts remain the same except you'll need to replace Ctrl with the Command key.
But it does have some quirks. While the Web version of WhatsApp works on any browser across all operating systems, the native app is limited to Windows 8 64-bit and newer, Mac OS X 10.9 and newer. Roughly 45 percent of the desktop world still works on Windows 7, so it's anybody's guess what the WhatsApp team was thinking.
WhatsApp for Desktop Is Hardly Anything to Be Excited About | NDTV Gadgets360.com
That means you still need to have your phone around to log onto the desktop app. Once you've downloaded the new client, it opens up to show the same screen from web.whatsapp.com. You need to scan the QR code displayed on the screen with your phone before you're let through.
For what's it worth, the new app - essentially a Node-Webkit wrapper - comes with a few keyboard shortcuts, and does have low memory consumption. On Windows, you can archive a chat by pressing Ctrl + E, mute it with Ctrl + Shift + M, change the read status of message with Ctrl + Shift + U and delete it with Ctrl + Backspace. Press Ctrl + F and you'll be taken directly to the search bar, while Ctrl + N and Ctrl + Shift + N help in starting a new chat or group respectively. On Mac, the shortcuts remain the same except you'll need to replace Ctrl with the Command key.
But it does have some quirks. While the Web version of WhatsApp works on any browser across all operating systems, the native app is limited to Windows 8 64-bit and newer, Mac OS X 10.9 and newer. Roughly 45 percent of the desktop world still works on Windows 7, so it's anybody's guess what the WhatsApp team was thinking.
WhatsApp for Desktop Is Hardly Anything to Be Excited About | NDTV Gadgets360.com
