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Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

blog.whatsapp.com

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Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#201

Post by neerdowell »

dingo_bat wrote: post #173
NetStrikeForce wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As kawera said two comments above yours: Their servers do not store unencrypted messages so they need to come from the phone. ---- That's why some people criticise Telegram: Their messages have to be stored unencrypted for their setup to work.

AFAIK Apple Message implements encryption and has independent clients. So I think the problem can be solved with some effort.

Each device has its own key. Before a message is sent, the client grabs all the keys for each device associated with the account of the recipient, it then encrypts the message separately for each device and sends a separate encrypted copy for each device.

This scheme has various weaknesses, eg. a rogue key could be associated with someone's account without their knowledge, and anyone who sends this person messages will therefore be sending a copy encrypted with the rogue key.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#202

Post by nonterrorist »

746F7475 wrote: post #103
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 get smart phones for like $20 and if they are not used for anything the service costs are like $5/mo

Unless you live in Canada.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#203

Post by fastball »

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?

I hadn't, but now I have.

Using mitmproxy to snoop my phone, I see that all the data coming into my computer when I open up Whatsapp Web is originating from my phone. Including pictures.

That being said, all of my current conversations are on the new "end-to-end-encryption" thing, which might make a difference.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#204

Post by fastball »

cft wrote: post #79
shliachtx wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not an excuse, but: A) WhatsApp is a true messaging app. Once the messages are delivered, they are deleted from the server, so you need a primary device that stores the messages. B) It currently uses a phone number as identification, in order to create a true desktop app you would need another method (unless you use a landline or dumbphone phone number for desktop as well).

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?

In order to use Whatsapp Web, your computer/tablet and your phone need to be connected to the same wifi network.

That makes it easy to send all the data necessary from your phone to your computer in the blink of an eye, because intranet wifi speeds are very fast.

On my iPhone, backups can be stored, but through iCloud, not on Whatsapp servers.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#205

Post by wjoe »

mwcampbell wrote: post #53
jeffjose wrote: post #2

No linux version. I was almost convinced that this was going to be another Electron app (after slack went that route)

It is indeed an Electron app. I guess they just figured it wasn't worth the trouble to package and test it for Linux.

It takes zero effort to package Electon apps for Linux, there are plenty of tools available that will package it for all platforms with one command.

And so far, I've not seen any differences or platform specific bugs.

Sure, you'd expect a big company like WhatsApp to do QA testing on every platform they release for, but it's a shame that even with the barrier of entry is so negligibly low, that they still won't provide a Linux build. Even if it's just for the latest Ubuntu LTS that's fine, other distros can repackage it themselves.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#207

Post by raimue »

sanjeetsuhag wrote: post #25
jng wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess they could do an "untethered" desktop version but they don't really want to. Solve syncing of history etc but it's doable. But they just love living in your pocket. It's all about owning you, and that's easier if they stay with you all the time.

I feel the same way. Just build an independent app already. Telegram did it well. What's stopping WhatsApp ?

Telegram also only shares unencrypted chats across multiple devices.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#208

Post by NamTaf »

Strom wrote: post #11

Windows 8 minimum? Is this an UWP app or what's the reasoning here? Edit: I downloaded and successfully launched this on Windows 7. It seems like a standard Electron app. Now I wonder if the Windows 8 requirement is purely for tech support reasons, or if there's some specific feature that would fail on Windows 7.

It runs fine on windows 7 - I just tested it and can't see any problems with it.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#209

Post by kccqzy »

Longhanks wrote: post #192
ddeck wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's required because your phone is where your messages are stored. Whatsapp don't retain messages/media after they've been delivered to your phone, which is a compelling privacy feature for many. It's also what allows them to serve such an enormous user base with limited hardware. Their technology stack (FreeBSD/Erlang) is pretty interesting, more info here: 2014 talks by Rick Reed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c…

Neither does iMessage store messages on servers, and yet I receive iMessages on every device I signed on.

But you can't retrieve historical iMessages on a new device.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#210

Post by squeaky-clean »

cosecantt wrote: post #132
nitin_flanker wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I just opened the Whatsapp web app (never used it before), and then immediately set Airplane Mode on my phone as soon as it scanned the QR code.

WhatsApp managed to load all my conversations (I don't have many) and the most recent message, for display in the list-view. But each conversation only has the most recently sent message. After a while I got a "Phone Not Connected" message. Seems like it really is only stored on your phone.

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