Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#131

Post by xerophyte12932 » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:06 AM UTC

So what is the benefit of this over the Web version? Same UI, both need the internet, both have desktop notifications, both need your cellphone to be connected to the internet. Not to mention, no linux version

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#132

Post by cosecantt » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:11 AM UTC

nitin_flanker wrote: post #118

ars wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you should try web app disabling the internet on your phone. Have you tried it? If watsup store the messages on its servers, it would be able to retrieve. But this is also not reliable since they may check phone connectivity before they retrieve from their "servers". I am still skeptical that they may store on servers behind the scene at least for speed and performance.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#133

Post by aluhut » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:15 AM UTC

Well, at least it's not a Chrome Add-On. Still useless for me because of the tether to phone point.

Now please Signal. Give me something we can all work with.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#134

Post by jrbapna » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:23 AM UTC

I was excited when I saw the headline but the phone teathering is a deal breaker.

I removed whatsapp from my phone precisely because it took up too much space, with all the photos and videos being shared daily. It's a shame really.. a desktop app would've been a great alternative

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#135

Post by joe_fishfish » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:26 AM UTC

... And there's STILL no official iPad version.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#136

Post by jeena » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:31 AM UTC

Meh, no Linux support, so I'll still be using Viber even though my siblings in Germany and Switzerland always try to get me to install WhatsApp instead, appearantly it is super big there. Here in Sweden noone ever asked me to install it.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#137

Post by idlemind » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:31 AM UTC

jrbapna wrote: post #134

I was excited when I saw the headline but the phone teathering is a deal breaker. I removed whatsapp from my phone precisely because it took up too much space, with all the photos and videos being shared daily. It's a shame really.. a desktop app would've been a great alternative

An app without tethering would be great, I agree.

But to save space on your phone, it's easy to turn off automatic storage of media, on iOS this is under Settings > Chats > Save Incoming Media. I've had it turned off for a long time to stop my camera roll filling with meme pics.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#138

Post by delta1 » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:31 AM UTC

jrbapna wrote: post #134

I was excited when I saw the headline but the phone teathering is a deal breaker. I removed whatsapp from my phone precisely because it took up too much space, with all the photos and videos being shared daily. It's a shame really.. a desktop app would've been a great alternative

> with all the photos and videos being shared daily

Why not just turn off auto media download?

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#139

Post by 59nadir » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:38 AM UTC

magazinelala wrote: post #90

NiekvdMaas wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just a wrapper for web clients of the "protocols" they support. So WhatsApp is web.whatsapp.com in a tab, Skype is web.skype.com, etc.

Way to undermine the hard work of talented developers. Is that envy? You should see all the features its offer before calling it just a "wrapper".

I think you're reading a bit too much into his comment. It's true that the phrasing can seem dismissive, but I don't think it's meant as such to that extreme of a degree.

It being a collection of wrappers is either true or not and is not necessarily a value judgment, but a technical detail.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#140

Post by aiNohY6g » Wed, May 11, 2016, 7:39 AM UTC

1/ phone tethering is the price to pay for end-to-end encryption: the support of multiple devices is not compatible with perfect forward secrecy, as the former require the asynchronous push of messages to all devices while PFS requires synchronicity (at least some kind of, as explained in their white paper here: https://lobste.rs/s/sx2f0r/whatsapp_encryption_overview_tech...

2/ if you don't like the Desktop App (or are using Linux), you can use https://web.whatsapp.com/ and/or the Chrome extension WhatsChrome https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/whatschrome/bgkodf...