Previously, if you wanted to use WhatsApp on your desktop, you had to resort to third-party clients such as AirDroid 3. Recently WhatsApp has made their free messaging app available on the web, as well, but it was initially restricted only to Chrome browsers. Now the company has officially announced on its Twitter account that it extends support to Firefox and Opera browsers, as well.
Thus, you can now send and receive WhatsApp messages right from your PC or laptop by using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Opera browsers. Unfortunately, it seems that Safari users will have to wait for a little longer. The sign up process is the same as before, which means users have to scan a QR code with the mobile app in order to start using the web client.
At the moment, iPhone users don’t have the capability to scan the QR code but it works for Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Android. Also, before trying out the new web client, you need to make sure you have upgraded to the latest version of WhatsApp on your phone. After you have scanned the QR code from within the ‘WhatsApp Web’ section in settings, you should get a screen like this on your browser:
You can then choose to turn on desktop notifications, and change your profile and do pretty much the same things you were doing on your mobile device, as well. I find the web interface to be really friendly and useful. And, in my case, really helpful, especially for those situations when my phone is charging in the other room and I can’t hear notification sounds.
After you have enabled desktop notifications, they should look like in the picture from above. And you will also be notified when there’s a picture in the message. The webclient looks just as great as the mobile interface, therefore, gladly recommend it to anybody out there.