Better late than never, they say. The sounds echoed in Whatsapp’s ears as the ubiquitous messaging service has finally taken the wraps off its hands to add a native desktop client for both Windows and OSx users and this should not be confused with WhatsApp web. A feature that’s long been rumored to be in the offing and heavily demanded for, given it’s been offered by some of its strongest rivals like Telegram, Line among others.
It makes sense given a considerable count of users spend more time looking at their desktops than their smartphones especially workaholics. They often miss out on notifications and conversations going on from their tiny screens so the need to have a Whatsapp desktop extension, that is a native desktop app.
Whereas you could do this with Whatsapp Web, it’s been tied to one’s browser and most users would miss it owing to the tweaks involved. This launch however makes it universal and will sideline the need for one to use it in their browser in favor of the desktop. The app will support both Windows 8+ and OSX 10.9+ therefore users running older versions of the respective operating systems will have to upgrade to use it.
Just like Whatsapp Web it’s since come to replace, the new native desktop clients/apps will sync with your desktop and mirror conversations on your phone onto the big screen. This benefits the app with core OS integration and in return yields better notifications, keyboard shortcuts amongst others to the end user.
After downloading the app on your desktop, open it and use your phone’s Whatsapp app to scan the QR code and you’re good to go. (refer to whatsapp Web menu under the settings tab )
Given Whatsapp has been late to the game, we hope it won’t be late enough for them to borrow more from the competition and give us bots to interact with, secret chats, ephemeral messaging functionality, public chats amongst other power features. To download the app, check here from your desktop browser.
