Whatsapp web browser client - Online Cyber Security News

WhatsApp launches Desktop Software for Windows and Mac Users

Tuesday, May 10, 2016 Wang Wei

The most popular messaging app WhatsApp now has a fully functional desktop app – both for Mac as well as Windows platform.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging software has been a mobile-only messaging platform forever, but from Tuesday, the company is offering you its desktop application for both Windows and OS X.

Few months back, WhatsApp launched a Web client that can be run through your browser to use WhatsApp on your desktop, but now users running Windows 8 or Mac OS 10.9 and above can use the new desktop app that mirrors WhatsApp messages from a user's mobile device.

According to the company's blog post, the WhatsApp desktop app is similar to WhatsApp Web with synchronized conversations and messages

Since WhatsApp desktop app is native for both Windows and OS X platform, it can support desktop notifications and keyboard shortcuts.

WhatsApp has been rising at an extraordinary pace recently. The service has over 1 Billion monthly active users.

At the beginning of the year, the company removed its yearly $1 subscription fee. Just last month, the company rolled out end-to-end encryption for all its users' communication by default.

Here's how to Download WhatsApp Desktop Software:

WhatsApp launches Desktop Software for Windows and Mac Users

Users running Windows 8 (or newer) or OS X 10.9 (or newer) can download WhatsApp desktop app available for direct downloading.
Once Downloaded, open the WhatsApp desktop app.
Scan the QR code with your mobile phone to Sync your device.

Now enjoy WhatsApping your friends and family straight from your desktop.

WhatsApp Web Client Now Available on Firefox and Opera Browsers

Thursday, February 26, 2015 Swati Khandelwal

It's been a long time coming, but now the users of Firefox and Opera browsers don’t need to rely on the Chrome browser to access WhatsApp Web client, as the most popular smartphone messaging service has announced that the Web-based version of its service now works on Firefox and Opera web browsers too.

WHATSAPP WEB AVAILABLE FOR OPERA & FIREFOX

Almost a month ago, WhatsApp launched the web client of its service but the access was limited only to the Google Chrome users. Now, the company is giving more choices to desktop users by launching WhatsApp Web Today for Opera and Firefox browsers, though you’ll still have to wait a little long if you’re a Safari user.

WhatsApp Web is nothing than an extension of the core mobile WhatsApp application. It syncs conversations from your smartphone devices to your PCs, with everything stored on the mobile device itself.

HOW TO USE WHATSAPP ON PC/DESKTOP

In order to install WhatsApp web in your PC or laptop running Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Opera browsers, you need to follow same steps, as the sign-up process is the same as with Chrome browser:

Interested WhatsApp users simply need to open Chrome and navigate to http://web.whatsapp.com
A QR code will appear on the web page, which must be scanned using WhatsApp mobile application to activate the service.
By scanning the QR code that appears, users will automatically have paired their mobile WhatsApp with the WhatsApp web client, as shown.

For now, WhatsApp Web only works with Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices, but unfortunately, iPhones still don't have the capability to scan the WhatsApp Web QR code because there's no web solution at this time for iOS users because of limitations of the platform.

Currently, WhatsApp has 700 million users sending 30 billion messages per day, and is bigger than most of its competitors, including Facebook Messenger, Line and WeChat. Now, this new WhatsApp web client available for a wider range of browsers will definitely increase its market.

17-Year-Old Found Bugs in WhatsApp Web and Mobile App

Thursday, January 29, 2015 Swati Khandelwal

Last week, the most popular mobile messaging application WhatsApp finally arrived on the web — dubbed WhatsApp Web, but unfortunately it needs some improvements in its web version.

An independent 17-year-old security researcher Indrajeet Bhuyan reported two security holes in the WhatsApp web client that in some way exposes its users’ privacy. Bhuyan called the first hole, WhatsApp photo privacy bug and the other WhatsApp Web Photo Sync Bug.

Bhuyan is the same security researcher who reported us the vulnerability in the widely popular mobile messaging app which allowed anyone to remotely crash WhatsApp by sending a specially crafted message of just 2kb in size, resulting in the loss of conversations.

Whatsapp Photo Privacy Bug

According to him, the new version of WhatsApp Web allows us to view a user’s profile image even if we are not on the contact list of that user. Even if the user has set the profile image privacy setting to "Contacts Only," the profile picture can be viewed by out of contacts people as well.

Basically, if we set the profile image privacy to Contacts Only, only the people in our contact list are able to view our profile picture, and nobody else. But, this is not in the case of WhatsApp Web. You can watch how this works in the video demonstration below:

WhatsApp Web Photo Sync Bug

The second security hole points out the WhatsApp Web Photo Syncing functionality. Bhuyan noticed that whenever a user deletes a photo that was sent via the mobile version of WhatsApp application, the photo appears blurred and can’t be viewed.

However, the same photo, which has already been deleted by the user from mobile WhatsApp version, can be accessible by Whatsapp Web as the photo does not get deleted from its web client, revealing the fact that mobile and web clients of the service are not synced properly. You can also watch the video demonstration on this as well:

This is no surprise, as WhatsApp Web introduced just a couple of days before and these small security and implementation flaws could be expected at this time, as well as some other bugs could also be revealed in the near future.

However, the company will surely fix the issues and will definitely make its users’ messaging experience secure. As partnered with Open Whisper Systems, WhatsApp recently made end-to-end encryption a default feature on Android platform, stepping a way forward for the online privacy of its users around the world.

WhatsApp Web — New WhatsApp Feature Allows You to Chat From Your Browser

Wednesday, January 21, 2015 Mohit Kumar

The most popular smartphone messaging service WhatsApp is now able to communicate with friends from their PC. No Rumours at all !! Enjoy WhatsApp from your desktop from now on.

Last month, it was leaked that Whatsapp was working on a web client and finally from today they are introducing it to the public. The feature is called "WhatsApp Web," which gives its users the ability to read and send messages directly from their web browsers.

HOW TO USE WHATSAPP ON PC/DESKTOP

Interested WhatsApp users simply need to open Chrome and navigate to http://web.whatsapp.com
A QR code will appear on the web page, which must be scanned using WhatsApp mobile application to activate the service.
By scanning the QR code that appears, users will automatically have paired their mobile WhatsApp with the WhatsApp web client, as shown.

WhatsApp Web requires that you install and run the latest Whatsapp version of the Android app on your phone. The feature currently works on Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry, but unfortunately, there's no web solution at this time for iOS users because of limitations of the platform.

"Today, for the first time, millions of you will have the ability to use WhatsApp on your web browser," WhatsApp wrote in a blog post. "Our web client is simply an extension of your phone: The web browser mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device — this means all of your messages still live on your phone."

QR-code-WhatsApp-Web-desktop-browser-client

The web version supports desktop notifications so users are notified of new WhatsApp messages even when not checking the web page.

Not only this, the Facebook-owned company is also working on a voice calling feature that WhatsApp will soon launch.

Currently, WhatsApp has 700 million users sending 30 billion messages per day, and is bigger than most of its competitors, including Facebook Messenger, Line and WeChat. This new feature will definitely increase its market.

From yesterday, Whatsapp started banning users for 24-hours those using WhatsApp Plus or any other 3rd-Party client App on their smartphones.