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Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

blog.whatsapp.com

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Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#111

Post by BozeWolf »

pritambaral wrote: post #88
acchow wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't how cmd+tab works on a Mac. Do you mean alt+tab in Windows?

I don't really treat cmd+tab and cmd+` very differently, sorry. On my OS, both work: I can alt-` to cycle through windows of same application and alt+tab to cycle through each individual window (grouped by application); maybe that's given me the habit of treating alt+` merely as a filter on alt+tab. Oh! This is perhaps also why I get annoyed by cmd+tab on Macs!!

Next tme on mac try cmd+' to cycle between windows of the same app(although im not sure, because it really is muscle memory). Cmd tab cycles through wndow groups? Or does it cycle through each window?

Which wm on which os do you use? gnome kde or something else?

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#112

Post by yaegers »

_wmd wrote: post #15

Is anyone qualified to comment on what this will do with my OS X address book and similar data should I open it? edit: on the plus side, looks like it's just their web app repackaged using Electron. Still not sure what all these helpers are for though

Since it "just" mirrors your phone it shouldn't access your OSX address book.

But since most people use iCloud to sync that address book with their Mac and their phone its moot. If you open WhatsApp on your phone, it will take a trip through your contacts and upload everything to their servers. Which, I still maintain, is stupid and unnecessary and the numer one reason why I never bothered with WhatsApp.

It's an IM client. So let me put my numer in and that's it. If I want to use it, I probably already know the people that also use it. So if they in turn also hae uploaded their number, I could search for it and add it. Have them confirm out connection and chat away. There is no need to grab all my contacts' information without their consent.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#113

Post by cft »

Spare_account wrote: post #99
cft wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Including 2MB images in the conversation? Has someone verified this by looking at the traffic?

My experience of WhatsApp Web has been that the images do not auto-load (Chrome on Windows 10 and Windows 7). A heavily compressed thumbnail is loaded and I have to manually click each image that I want to view. I haven't analysed any traffic and I'm not a developer but my layman's guess would be that the WhatsApp mobile app has a pre-prepared Zip file (or some other compressed container) with the 20 most recent mess…

Actually, the "latest" images (whatever it means) auto-load. Only when you go up in the history you have to click to load.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#114

Post by cft »

nindalf wrote: post #94
cft wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Including 2MB images in the conversation? Has someone verified this by looking at the traffic?

I can't answer that question but I can say that images shared with whatsapp are compressed to < 100kb

That's not true: I just looked in my WhatsApp gallery, the first image I opened was 525KB. At <100KB, any screenshot of text would show visible compression distortion around the letter edges, which they do not.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#115

Post by micheljansen »

Julio-Guerra wrote: post #105

It seems to be nothing more than https://web.whatsapp.com/ in a web view. So I can't really see interest.

I previously created my own "native" app from this by wrapping https://web.whatsapp.com in an Electron wrapper so that I could have WhatsApp live separate from the browser, with it's own Dock icon.

Some ways in which the official app is better: * The official app extends to the edges of the window, whereas the web app has a "window on a background" design, which takes up more space. * The official app has keyboard shortcuts. * The official app has better notifications.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#116

Post by ergl »

cft wrote: post #83
ars wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually yes, that is exactly what they do: Download everything from the phone.

Including 2MB images in the conversation? Has someone verified this by looking at the traffic?

Images and videos are stored on their server for a fixed amount of time, and deleted afterwards. (So you just send an url and the client transforms it into a thumbnail).

You can test this by trying to download an image for the first time after a few weeks, it will tell you that the image is no longer available, and you should ask the other recipient to send it again.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#118

Post by nitin_flanker »

ars wrote: post #80
cft wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Messages are not deleted from the server. They are probably stored there in the encryped form. When I open the web version of WhatsApp, same images and the message history that i have on my phone get downloaded there. I highly doubt that they rely on my phone as the only master storage of that data and upload all images into the web version from it?

Actually yes, that is exactly what they do: Download everything from the phone.

I guess no. I uses mobile data to access whatsapp on phone. My chat history is roughly more than 250 MB.

The time Whatsapp web takes to download images and messages is far way faster than my actual 2G network on phone.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#119

Post by lenkite »

ascorbic wrote: post #107
witty_username wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you need desktop app support for Hangouts? You can install the extension.

Because I can't cmd-tab to it. Because it brings every Chrome window to front if I just want to read a message. Because it floats on top of Chrome whenever it's open. Because I can't easily move it between monitors, or to a different part of the screen. It's also really rubbish at uploading files. Why can't I drag and drop? And how about search? You're Google ffs. Why do I have to go to Gmail to search Hangouts, inst…

I don't use Hangouts, but I thought Google hangouts now has a desktop app variant that solves the problems you mentioned.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#120

Post by nitin_flanker »

tostitos1979 wrote: post #62

Why is Facebook/WhatsApp doing the tether to the phone crap? I have a few seniors in the family who have no need of a cellphone (stay at home most of the time). Everyone else in the family uses WhatsApp and these poor people are left out of the look. It is completely stupid as far as I can see. What is the phone requirement buying them?

You can use bluestack android emulator or something similar to run whatsapp on desktop.

You need a phone number just to create an account first, you can turn it off after that.

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