WhatsApp has opened up its popular instant messaging (IM) service, making it available for use on desktop via a Web client.
In a blog post yesterday, the company announced that, for the first time, "millions of you will have the ability to use WhatsApp on your Web browser".
WhatsApp explains its Web client is an extension of users' mobile phones. "The Web browser mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device. This means all of your messages still live on your phone."
The desktop capability is, for now, only available via Google Chrome and for BlackBerry (10 and previous versions), Windows, Android and Nokia's S60 platform.
WhatsApp attributes the lack of support for iOS devices to "Apple platform limitations", but indicates this is a temporary scenario. "Unfortunately for now, we will not be able to provide Web client to our iOS users."
To connect WhatsApp client to a Web browser, users need to go to https://web.whatsapp.com (using Google Chrome only) and scan the on-screen QR code with their mobile, which must be open in the "WhatsApp Web" portal that is available only on the latest version of the app. The process should take less than a minute, providing the mobile phone is running the latest version of WhatsApp.
Once updated, users will see the latest feature under "What's new". The app screen reads: "Introducing WhatsApp Web: You can now send and receive WhatsApp messages right from your computer's browser."
Great growth
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum revealed in a recent Facebook post celebrating the advent of 2015 that WhatsApp had reached over 700 million active monthly users and was seeing 30 billion messages sent every day.
This means WhatsApp is bigger than its Facebook-owned counterpart Instagram and micro-blog rival Twitter, which together have less than 600 million active monthly users. This is hefty growth, considering WhatsApp boasted "more than 450 million" active monthly users when it was acquired by Facebook 11 months ago.
Koum promised the company would keep building a "great product" this year. WhatsApp Voice is expected to become available within the next three months.
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