replicate the functions of the mobile app on my Mac where I can touchtype. Fix that and you get 4 or 5 stars because it THEN does what I want. WhatsApp is free and offers simple, secure, reliable messaging and calling, available on phones all over the world. Since upgrading to Big Sur on the Mac and the latest iOS build on my new iPhone 12 Pro, background app refresh on WhatsApp does nothing - or rather, unless my iPhone is OPEN and on WhatsApp, both the WhatsApp web browser app and the MacOS app from both direct DL and the App Store refuse to send out messages. WhatsApp Messenger: More than 2 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere. My sour note comes exactly on this last point though. forward SMS text messages received by the iPhone onto iPads and Macs. It would take a special kind of magic to give the third-party WhatsApp the ability to do what iPhones do natively i.e. if your phone isn't connected to the internet, then your desktop cannot relay the message to it to send out AS YOUR NUMBER which is exactly what it does. The Desktop app is indeed the same as the browser app, but the point that that the OP seems to miss is that WhatsApp is essentially an SMS replacement that relies on a mobile number being present. WhatsApp does now support touchbar for emoji insertion, so that is great. So, the highlighted reviews on the App Store are 3 and 2 years old and are slightly misleading. Of Touchbars and Connections via Background App Refresh It is exactly the same as the web-based app available via your browser, so why waste disk space downloading this program? WhatsApp / Facebook really should take a lesson from them.

I also use Viber, which has an excellent fully-featured desktop app that syncs with your other devices, but doesn’t require tethering to my mobile. I don’t understand the point of WhatsApp Desktop - the only benefit I can see is that you can type with a real keyboard. Many of the settings available on mobile aren’t available on Mac either. I thought the desktop app would improve the media browsing, which it does not. I wanted to use this seamlessly with the Photos app, dragging and dropping images each way, which I can’t.

I expected I could use this independently of my mobile, which I can’t. I expected to be able to update my status from the desktop app, which I can’t. Download WhatsApp for Windows and Mac Beta - The WhatsApp desktop app is an extension of your phone: the app mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device. I wanted to use this for video calls from my Mac, which I can’t. It amazes me that a desktop app could be significantly less powerful and capable than a mobile app.

Whatsapp desktop for mac