WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps with more than 800 million active users as it allows users to send text messages or share their files through any internet connection and it is available in lots of platforms, even for some feature phones and wearable devices. Since it was created in 2009 it has been updated with many useful features, more recently, it allows to make phone calls right from the app using the same connection for the rest of its functionality. Also, there’s the controversial blue tick system, letting the sender know when the message has been read, it is as useful as it can be creepy, this can be disabled, though. In Android, it has received its Material Design makeovers over the time
Since this year started, another feature was added to the messaging service, the ability to use it from any desktop computer or laptop with no need to install additional software as it can be used from browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari. The so-called WhatsApp Web service is an extension for the mobile app, as it syncs the sent and received messages in both platforms using the same account. Activating the service is as easy as going to web.whatsapp.com and scan the generated QR code using the phone’s camera.
The web platform works pretty well and has been updated a few times to improve its performance, it now allows the phone to be connected from a different access point than the computer and the multicultural emoji is now supported too. The most recent changes make this platform even more independent from the phone, it now allows users to change their profile pictures or take a new one using a web cam and the status can be edited as well. Hovering over any conversation on the left pane now shows an arrow pointing down and clicking it lets users to Archive or Delete that chat, in the case of a group conversation there’s also an option to mute those notifications, alternatively a left click might be used to open the menu with these options. The Contact and Group information panes have been updated with the added buttons at the bottom part that let users to delete the chat or exit the conversation or that can also be done with the three-dot menu within a conversation. There also seems to be an experimental support for keyboard shortcuts as they sometimes appear and some others don’t.
