The lack of an independent desktop application had always
been one of the few bones I wanted to pick with Whatsapp. Hunching over a
handset every once in a few minutes during office hours can be somewhat laborious
and would continuously make you wish for a convenient alternative. You just
would do with anything that delivers that convenience on your PC without having
to touch any extra gadgets and stuff.
For some time now, the Whatsapp web version, accessible via
a web browser has been the principal go-to choice (Someone might want to scream
Bluestacks, but it’s never been my
favorite).
Whatsapp recently released an independent application, one
that anyone can download and install onto their PC and they are good to go. Whereas
one has to go http://web.whatsapp.com/
with the Whatsapp web version, this app only requires a one-time installation
that can be launched like any other application. It is available for download
at: https://www.whatsapp.com/download/.
You should be able to see something similar to the
screenshot below;
It comes with the flexibility of choosing the
download/installation language. The Windows installer says it’s meant for
Windows 8 and higher, but I have tried it on Windows 7 and it still works perfectly.
The Windows installer is about 62 MB in size, and the
installation process is pretty basic – the typical double-click to open, and
choose to install. It takes a couple of minutes and the application is ready
for use.
Upon completion of the installation, the application opens
with a code scanning prompt similar to the one prompted by Whatsapp web browser
portal.
Scanning the code grants you instant access to the
standalone Whatsapp application (See screenshot below).
This is slightly different from the web portal, shown below
(for comparison purposes);
The Pros:
1) Independence from browser activity. Some browsers freeze
with resource-intensive activity and may crash. When this happens, all
previously open windows will have to be re-opened, sometimes resulting into a
break in communication chains.
2) Streamlined resource management. Sometimes Whatsapp may
consume more resources than it ordinarily would. This may make a browser
unresponsive, and may freeze or crash. With this application, it is easy to
have it isolated (via Task manager for example, if you are using Windows)
without affecting any other running programs.
3) The application comes with a separate, clearly defined
menu, and this partly enhances the navigation and management of chats, groups
and chat history.
The Cons:
1) Almost all features are still the same as for
web.whatsapp.com. Clicking on a particular contact, for example, does not have
the option of “Media” to show and/highlight media files that might have been
exchanged between the two parties.
2) Like its web version predecessor, the application does
not allow transfer of certain media types – such as mp3 music files. One would
have to first convert them to mp4 format. The alternative would be changing the
file extension to mp4.
