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Show HN: WhatsApp for Desktop
- rhia 11y agoIf only there would be a messenger with native iOs Phone/Tablet, Android Phone/Tablet, Windows, OSX and Linux apps... oh wait there is, it is called Telegram. And you don't even need your phone to use it.
- Trufa 11y agoGreat, now I only need to convince everyone I know and meet to stop using Whatsapp ans switch to Telegram, sounds easy enough.
- mikearagua 11y agoFriends don't let friends use Whatsapp (or anything owned by Facebook).
- collyw 11y agoI bought an Ubuntu phone, not realizing that whatsapp wasn't available. Its a struggle getting people to switch.
- JonAtkinson 11y agoIt looks like a tidy application, and I'm assuming it's functional - good job. You're probably going to need to deal with the WhatsApp legal team very soon. I recall several HN threads discussing various shutdowns of 3rd party WhatsApp-based services. One example which came from a quick search was: https://github.com/venomous0x/WhatsAPI https://github.com/venomous0x/WhatsAPI Good luck!
- DanielStraight 11y ago> You're probably going to need to deal with the WhatsApp legal team very soon. And for good reason. Remember that trademarks are a consumer protection policy to avoid confusion. I was certainly confused at first. If it wasn't for the "Show HN" on the title, I might still be confused. The product name is "WhatsApp for Desktop", the page includes links back to whatsapp.com for the user to find more information, pictures copied directly from whatsapp.com (itself a fairly obvious copyright violation), and the file that's downloaded is called WhatsAppSetup.exe. It is quite reasonable to think that someone could think this was official, easily missing the fine print that clarifies. I strongly suggest anyone releasing software on the internet familiarize themselves with the relevant laws on trademark and copyright so they can avoid mistakes like this. There is no way this could stand up to legal scrutiny. Naming your product AnotherCompany PrepositionalPhrase is not something which presents an interesting legal debate, it's an amateur mistake. I am not a lawyer. This comment is not legal advice.
- higherpurpose 11y agoIt might've been better to do what "Reddit News" did when it turned into "Relay for Reddit" [1]. So it shouldn't be "Whatsapp" for something. But "Something" for Whatsapp. I'm not entirely sure if that avoids all the legal issues or whether it was just something Reddit itself was willing to compromise on in the case of "Relay for Reddit", but at least you should start with that kind of default rather than shamelessly using other company's product name as if it was your own. I think others who have used Google's name or other product names in their own Chrome extensions have taken a similar path. Like how "Gmail Checker Plus" (or something) became "Checker Plus For Gmail" [2]. [1] - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=free.reddit.news https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=free.reddit.ne... [2] - http://jasonsavard.com/checkerPlusForGmail http://jasonsavard.com/checkerPlusForGmail
- Bulk70 11y agoSpeaking as someone who created an extension for a Google service (Youtube) - the name change was forced on me. My extension was taken down from the Chrome store with guidance to change the name to "XXX for YouTube" with the requirement to follow their branding guidelines etc.
- Igglyboo 11y agoI totally agree "Whatsapp for X" implies that Whatsapp proper created an application for X while "X for Whatsapp" doesn't have the same implication.
- amyjess 11y ago"[Name] for [Service]" is a popular format in the third-party client world, and it's one that's tolerated by all the big players. Much older examples include "Plume for Twitter" and "FriendCaster for Facebook". In the case of the former, it was by agreement with Twitter: Plume used to be called Touiteur until Twitter made them change it. You're seeing it more lately because Google recently changed the Play Store's app naming policy to forbid using the name of an existing service as part of your app's main brand, only allowing a special clause (e.g. "for [Service]") following the main brand. Also, around the same time, reddit changed their API policy to add a similar requirement. In the long run, it's going to be beneficial for app developers because now they can take their name and use it for apps across multiple services. For example, the developers of Plume could create a "Plume for Facebook" app and so on, so they end up with a whole family of Plume apps, each one for a different social network.
- graeham 11y agoHope not - their reaction shouldn't be lawsuits, it should be "hire this guy/ gal"! I don't see why so many popular mobile apps seem to refuse to have web-versions for use on other platforms. Even if it's less functional.
- egeozcan 11y ago> Even if it's less functional. Having something with missing functionality and/or bugs isn't always better than having nothing if you look at it from a marketing perspective. I agree that hiring someone talented who seems to like your brand to work on their extensions of your product would usually be a good investment, just not always.
- misnome 11y agoWhatever their reason is, it is certainly not a technical reason e.g. inability to write the client. It's a choice they have made.
- vishnuks 11y agoWhatsapp already have a web version. He merely converted that into a desktop client with the help of Node Web Kit.
- joeyspn 11y ago> their reaction shouldn't be lawsuits, it should be "hire this guy/gal" For building a webview wrapper with nw.js? It cost me 5 mins to build mine... It's an "app" that will never leave my desktop and I still give Jan Koum credit in the About section... xD http://i.imgur.com/BXu4F7M.png http://i.imgur.com/BXu4F7M.png Let's hope the WhatsApp team won't be too harsh with the guy. Clearly it's been an ingenuous move by a young dev. Hopefully they'll come to terms just taking it down or renaming completely the project.
- joeyspn 11y ago^ Hit the nail on the head... I've been using a similar wrapper for whatsapp web that I built myself with nw.js, but I didn't upload it to github because of obvious reasons (see WhatsAPI case...)
- aluxian 11y agoMy app doesn't use their API directly, nor does it try to interfere with it.
- aikah 11y agoDoesn't matter, you're using "whatsapp" trademark(and your logo is similar) and their api without any disclaimer, directly or not. And they have enough money to at least shut you down. Some projects have been shut down for way less. Nice project though, good luck.
- Amaresh 11y agoDoesn't work if you have an iOS device.
- k-mcgrady 11y agoI wish they'd sort that out (WhatsApp not this apps dev). It's kind of ridiculous there web app only works on one platform.
- rafaqueque 11y agoThey blame Apple for that. Limitations.
- Cthulhu_ 11y agoOnly because their web client works via the phone, and their whole service is based on having a phone number; they should do a more commonplace username/password based logins (with maybe two-factor authentication on a phone) and have a regular, proper client. It's probably the biggest chat tool out there; surely they can afford to build a native client or two?
- k-mcgrady 11y agoAs Cthulhu_ says it's more to do with the design of their app than iOS. Now that they have the clout of Facebook behind them they should be able to come up with a solution.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- baidoct 11y agoActually, it would be possible IF you device is jailbroken, but I rather not.
- StavrosK 11y agoWhy would you not just run WhatsApp if you have an iOS device? You want to run it as a secondary client?
- fla 11y agoIs it a wrapper around https://web.whatsapp.com/ https://web.whatsapp.com/ ? If yes, what's the advantage over opening a browser tab ?
- hackthisuk 11y agoLooks like it is: https://github.com/Aluxian/WhatsApp-Desktop/blob/master/src/app.html https://github.com/Aluxian/WhatsApp-Desktop/blob/master/src/...
- fla 11y agoThanks. From a quick glance, the added value seems to be a notification system and a context-menu. [1] Does it worth it ? (not a regular whatsapp-web user). [1] https://github.com/Aluxian/WhatsApp-Desktop/blob/master/src/app.js#L55-L58 https://github.com/Aluxian/WhatsApp-Desktop/blob/master/src/...
- kingzain 11y agoHaven't tried this desktop app yet, but WhatsApp web already shows notifications, at least using Chrome.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- brobinson 11y agoIf you don't care about the notifications, you could use Fluid to make a standalone app which wraps the website. http://fluidapp.com http://fluidapp.com
- mosselman 11y agoI have a question. How would one go about reverse engineering an API for something like WhatsApp? What are some of the tools you can use to discover how their API works?
- batuhanicoz 11y agoWell this particular app seems like wrapper around the WhatsApp Web interface but if you are interested in reverse engineering API's used by apps, try Charles. It's a transparent proxy that saves calls in and out. It works great if the app doesn't have cert pinning. http://www.charlesproxy.com/ http://www.charlesproxy.com/
- mosselman 11y agoCool thanks! I remember this appearing on HN at one point, but one forgets :).
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- dragos2 11y agoGood job! I see that you also made a wrapper for FB Messenger. If you could do the same for Hangouts it would be awesome. Might be a bit tricky because Hangouts doesn't really have a standalone webapp right now (you might wrap the chrome extension though).
- Kartificial 11y agoThe default desktop app for Hangouts doesn't float your boat? https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/6098392?hl=nl https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/6098392?hl=nl
- dragos2 11y agoNot really. It had an ugly bug for osx so I didn't use it that much. I got sort of used to the chrome extension, but that uses to much screen space. I want an app that takes advantage of the notification system built into OSX. These sort of wrappers (like op's app) get really close to native apps (in terms of ui/ux).
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- SchizoDuckie 11y agoSo this is indeed a very simple wrapper around the web.whatsapp.com. Just an <iframe>. I wondered how they reverse engineered the security and worked around whatsapp's SSO permissions. They didn't, you can just as well open web.whatsapp.com and realize that this still doesn't make it work with an iPhone. Now all they did is make themselves a target for legal action, because they're using the whatsapp trademark on the domain name and spent a load of time doing basically nothing.
- brobinson 11y agoIt looks like he also built a wrapper around Facebook's Messenger site, including copying the color scheme/layout and an almost identical favicon: http://messengerfordesktop.com http://messengerfordesktop.com Seems he is based in Romania, so we'll see what Facebook's/WhatsApp's reaches are I suppose.
- kybernetyk 11y ago>Seems he is based in Romania, so we'll see what Facebook's/WhatsApp's reaches are I suppose. FYI Romania is a member state of the EU.
- corin_ 11y ago7th of 28 by population, 27th of 28 by either GDP or Human Development Index. (Completely unrelated, but maybe interesting.)
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoYeah they could use a lot of help. Hardworking folks for the most part; but tremendously disrupted by Glasnost. Communal farms lost their equipment when the bureaucrats sold it out and ran off with the proceeds. Villages lost their social support (schools, old folk stipends, post-natal care) overnight. Small towns and villages lost all their young folk to the city over a period of months. Slowly this is changing. But its a bleak picture for towns with no partner. Our church partnered with a village there, sold their crafts at an auction here to pay for a school building, books, old folks support, even a tractor. They were the only village in the area to get all their fields planted that year. This kind of partnership helps bootstrap folks. I don't think of it as charity. More like investment. Returns aren't in cash but still very real.
- farqueue 11y agoIt has some interface similarities with the Telegram app. (Not sure who was first!) http://i.imgur.com/fTQjgqa.jpg http://i.imgur.com/fTQjgqa.jpg
- Brakenshire 11y agoI've just tried it, it works well. Barring the delay on opening, and a small delay on resizing, it seems like a native app on Elementary OS. Credit to WhatsApp for building an excellent webapp, and credit to the author for wrapping everything up to tie in with the desktop. I would say there's definitely a benefit to have it as a separate hybrid app, rather than just loading the web-page. You can launch it directly, set it to run at start-up if you want, have a meaningful dock icon, notifications, etc. Clearly, in general you'd prefer a native application, but this is definitely useful.
- longdivision 11y agoThere's another OS X only client called ChitChat (formerly WhatsMac) that I've been using for a few weeks which is very cool: https://github.com/stonesam92/ChitChat https://github.com/stonesam92/ChitChat
- somesay 11y agoI like the integrated window control buttons and it has a nicer name than this project. Besides from that both are good wrappers for web.whatsapp.com and have native notifications, notification counter etc.
- Nux 11y agoCool, I don't need to run Chrome for this. BTW, you should release some generic binary tarballs, those debs work just fine on CentOS/Fedora if you unpack them. No notifications/tray icon in MATE though.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- fiatjaf 11y agoI wish you very good luck.
- jaboutboul 11y agostill no ios support...
- Fundlab 11y agoVery nice,I can see a lot of use cases for this in a professional domain. Good luck
- RX14 11y agoI see no advantage over using the --app flag on chrome. It does basically the same thing seeming as this is just a wrapper for whatsapp web anyway...
- axx 11y agoBought by Facebook in 3...2...1...
- samsaga2 11y agoThere is a plugin for Pidgin https://github.com/davidgfnet/whatsapp-purple/ https://github.com/davidgfnet/whatsapp-purple/
- ecesena 11y agoI saw also the fb messenger for desktop - absolutely great! One suggestion though, I definitely prefer 1 single app to catch all my IMs, like adium on Mac... I'd definitely prefer to have a single app for both whatsapp and messenger, or even better 2 plugins for adium.
- aluxian 11y agoHey, everyone, I'm the dev. First of all, thanks to @halfimmortal for posting this, I've just stumbled upon it. It's my first time on the front page ^^ I didn't realise using the official logo, their colours and the name was so bad. I emailed WhatsApp to discuss it and I hope we'll come to an agreement. Whatever we get to, I'm willing to rename the app and use another domain to keep the app alive. The app is just a wrapper around web.whatsapp.com which runs on top of NW.js. What I did is make the notifications work, I added custom themes (will be available in the next release) and some minor tweaks to improve integration with the OS. The app doesn't work on iOS due to some operating system limitations. I think WhatsApp is working on it. Thanks for the support and the naming idea.
- Kluny 11y agoCan I use my own phone number and contacts list, chat with people who aren't on Whatsapp, and use this client to type my text messages from my desktop? If so I'll be happy to pay for it.
- aluxian 11y agoMy app has the exact same functionality as https://web.whatsapp.com https://web.whatsapp.com. You can't chat with people who aren't on WhatsApp.
- clamprecht 11y agoLiving in a Spanish-speaking country, I always thought the name "Qué Pasapp" would make sense. (Qué pasa translates roughly to "What's up?"). But I'm not a native Spanish speaker, so this may not sound good to native speakers.
- josu 11y agoI'm a native speaker and it sounds pretty bad to me. Besides, I think that most people in Spanish speaking countries don't even know what "What's up?" means.
- saurik 11y ago
- mcbetz 11y agoThis is just another wrapper for Whatsapp's Web application. Hence it has the same limitations, especially this one: It does not work with an iPhone.
- swah 11y agoYep, there's no API, how would he login with your iPhone on your behalf?
- netsurfer912 11y agoJust give it up already. WhatsApp is going to sue the hell out of you. Telegram has everything we need, and it's already cross-platform, open and totally free. The security might be debatable, but it will always be better than WhatsApp's. So please - leave WhatsApp alone. They don't even want people to use it.