Whatsapp Messenger Windows 10 Install
Jalisa Landgren
WhatsApp for PC is the desktop version of the popular instant messaging application owned by Facebook. It's more often than not used on mobile platforms such as Android and iOS but WhatsApp has developed a version for Windows which can synchronize with your mobile phone.Getting started with this chat client is quite simple. Get the application up and running by scanning a QR code from your screen on your phone and you'll then be authorized to use WhatsApp for PC connected to your cell phone number. The main interface will then be populated with your contacts and chat history.To get the QR code and connect to your PC, click the settings icons in WhatsApp and select ---- WhatsApp Web. This will allow you to scan the QR code that the Windows client is displaying.With the PC version of WhatsApp, you've got access to all of your contacts that you would normally chat with on the mobile application directly from your desktop. This version integrates many of the mobile features which make the transition between desktop and phone pretty seamless.Video and audio callsAs with the mobile version, when you run WhatsApp on a Windows system, you're able to send video and audio clips the same way you're used to. Getting online and sending these to friends is simple. Just select the contact, open the chat window and click the attachment icon. From here, you can select between camera, photos and videos.The program can also send the emoticons and emojis that we've become accustomed to but does not currently support stickers.You used to be able to make video calls with WhatsApp on the PC but Facebook has migrated this and forced users to continue with these functions by using Facebook's messenger application. Certainly not useful for people who don't care to use Facebook. What a let down.Group chatsOne feature that hasn't been removed from the desktop client is the ability to partake in group chats. It's a feature which allows people to create virtual chat rooms with up to 250 members. These can be useful for business, general interest, family groups and just friends planning a night out.You can use the group chat to create a video or audio call on your mobile device for up to 50 people but once again, this has been limited by Facebook on the Windows version.ConclusionAll in all, the WhatsApp Windows client can be quite useful for communication with your contacts on a Windows desktop and it does make it a lot easier to reply to messages with a full keyboard instead of a touch screen.Features of WhatsApp for PC
- Integrates with Facebook, Telegram and WhatsApp.
- Group Chat: Create group chats with up to 256 participants, making it perfect for organizing large events or just keeping in touch with your friends.
- Security and Privacy: Secure and private, so you can rest assured that your conversations are safe from prying eyes.
- Status Updates: Easily share your status updates with your contacts, so you can easily keep everyone in the loop.
- Synchronization across Devices: Synchronize your conversations and contacts across different devices, so you can easily switch between devices without losing your data.
- Video Calls: High-quality video calls that are perfect for catching up with friends and family.
- Voice Messaging: Quickly and easily send voice messages without having to type a message.
Yes. It can run on a PC with Windows 11 or Windows 10. Previous versions of the OS shouldn't be a problem with Windows 8 and Windows 7 having been tested. It comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit downloads.Other operating systems: The latest WhatsApp for PC version from 2024 is also available for Android, Mac and iPhone. These are often available from the app store.
Zorin Lite 16.2 XFCE
My mum now needs WhatsApp voice calls on her laptop.
WhatsApp Web does not do voice calls. And therefore anything that's just a wrapper around WhatsApp Web, like all the Linux "desktop clients" WhatsDesk, WhatsApp-for-linux, Ferdi/Franz, Rambox etc cannot do voice calls either. (And 99.9% of what I find on the web about WhatsApp on Linux involves one of those web wrappers.)
So that leaves a few options that I'd like to get the forum users tips or experience on.
Guest Opinion: WhatsApp is among the most widely used platforms in the world, and most users stick to it because of its supposed strong security protocols and a strong focus on user privacy. However, is WhatsApp really as secure and privacy-friendly...
Thanks, Anbox looks interesting, a sort of Wine but for Android.
The instructions on installing kernel modules are doing my head in, but hopefully I can get through them eventually.
I'll report back with how it goes.
I'd love to get my mum using something FLOSS and secure like Jami, Jitsi etc... but that could be bad for the people she's communicating with. They're in China (the ones she's talking to in WeChat) and Hong Kong (where WhatsApp is still OK... for now).
Just having something like Jami on their phone (or Jitsi in their browser history) could get people into trouble there. And she doesn't want that, nor do I.
I know nothing about switching from X11 to Wayland, what that would involve or how that would affect everything else on this system. (But I suspect it would be major.)
I see a few comments about something called "Weston" to allow a "nested Wayland session" within X11. Again, I know nothing about making that work and whether I could realistically expect my mum to do it whenever she needs to use WhatsApp.
As for alternatives to WhatsApp, it would need to be something that wouldn't get a Chinese person in Hong Kong (and who often travels back to mainland China) into trouble just for having on their phone. Things like WeChat, Skype and Zoom are acceptable to the mainland authorities, WhatsApp is excusable for someone working In HK, but things like Signal are out of the question. Just having it on their phone could make that person a target for investigation/punishment.
Lower down the page they claim you can make "phone calls" but all other info on (and experience with) WhatsApp Web is that you can't make voice calls. I'll try it anyways.
CONFIRMED: Opera uses ordinary WhatsApp Web, no way to make voice calls.
I had remembered seeing whatsapp on Opera and installed to check it out. I haven't used it in a while . Any browser can be a data miner depending on how it is used and set up. With the exception of Firefox most better known browsers are chromium based.
After losing time trying to understand whether or not I have/should use/can use/can learn PlayOnLinux, winetricks, wineprefixes etc to install the whatsapp-portable.exe I've downloaded, I say "f#$k it" and just right click on the .exe and click "Open with Install Windows Application".
A message pops up with the headline "You can use WhatsApp on the web".
WTF??? The entire point of all this is precisely to avoid WhatsApp Web and get the real thing. What am I actually getting here?
It also gives two buttons at bottom: "Run anyway" and "Launch" (highlighted). What is the difference between "running" and "launching"? No idea, no explanation, no help button.
As my experience of installing .debs involves clicking "Run anyway", I choose that.
Yay! A Windows installer wizard starts up. Looks like "Run anyway" was the right choice. I complete the installer's steps, and click "Finish" (leaving "Run Whatsapp Portable" unselected, as something I saw earlier in PlayOnLinux suggested avoiding launching app on finish).
Entire screen goes black for a bit. Eventually screens returns to as before, including the installer again waiting for me to click Finish.
I click it again, and the installer goes away, normal screen this time.
In Nemo, I go to .wine/drive_c. I look in Program Files: not there. I look in Program Files (x86): not there either. Doh! I see portapps has created its own folder on drive_c top level, and inside that /whatsapp-portable.
There's a readme.md (nothing useful in it), a "whatsapp-portable.exe", changelog, portapp.json and a folder called "app". Looking in /app, more folders and "WhatsApp.exe". And in one of those folders, another "WhatsApp.exe".
OK, I'll try the whatsapp-portable.exe in /whatsapp-portable and see what happens.
I double-click on whatsapp-portable.exe and again I get the message with the headline "You can use WhatsApp on the web" and the two buttons at bottom: "Run anyway" and highlighted "Launch WhatsApp". (Before it was just "Launch", this time "Launch WhatsApp".)
I still don't know the difference between Run and Launch, but at least the Launch button this time mentions the name of the program I want to use. So I click "Launch WhatsApp".
And it does not launch WhatsApp. Instead it opens a new tab in Chrome. Heart sinks. WhatsApp Web page, QR code to scan. The same process I've already tried re every other WhatsApp "client" on Linux, and which never allows voice calls. I scan the QR code anyway (who knows? maybe this is just an initial step to get the actual whatsapp-portable running.) The QR code is accepted... and I'm in the regular WhatsApp Web page in Chrome. That's it. No way to make voice calls. All these steps and all those folders and files just to open a web page??? That can't be right.
I close the WhatsApp Web page in Chrome, and try double-clicking on the whatsapp-portable.exe but this time I choose "Run anyway".
New folders are created (/data and /log) but no program visible yet. Then a very long (Wine?) error message, headlined "A JavaScript error occurred in the main process." Then long gibberish and just an "OK" button at bottom. I click OK, the error message disappears. No WhatsApp. I open the Task Manager which shows two processes both called "winedevice.exe", and one "wineserver". But no WhatsApp.