A day after WhatsApp started banning users from using unauthorized applications, the company has announced the launch of its own web client. Users can now access their WhatsApp conversations through a desktop web browser. For the time being, it works only on Google Chrome.
WhatsApp has posted the following about its new feature on their official blogspot:
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 clients to our iOS users due to Apple platform limitations.
We really hope you find web clients useful in your everyday lives.
So, as explained in their post, the setup process for WhatsApp Web is quite simple. The interface is similar to the phone application, and in our testing, it worked pretty smoothly. You can use this new feature if you have an Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, or Windows phone. For now, iOS users can’t use this due to “Apple platform limitations”, but let’s hope that gets fixed quickly. WhatsApp has received a new update on 21 January, so ensure that you have updated it to the latest version (2.11.498 for Android).
This feature basically ensures that you won’t miss important messages when you are busy checking mail or if your phone is away, and for that purpose, this is more than enough. But if your smartphone is dead or if you are in a no-coverage area, then you won’t be able to access your conversations, since they have clearly mentioned that your phone should remain connected for this feature to work. So, the usefulness of this feature is limited, but nonetheless, it’s a step in the right direction for the Facebook-owned company.
Source: WhatsApp Blog
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