Author Topic: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?  (Read 1987 times)

mattc

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Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« on: 27 July, 2018, 12:36:33 pm »
I assumed it was like Facebook (i.e. almost everyone uses it from their smartphone, but the regular browser interface works very well.)

I tried to register with WhatsApp and they make it very clear that you should be registering from a Smartphone first (and some text suggests the phone needs to be connected anytime you want to access your messages from a PC).

Is this true??
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #1 on: 27 July, 2018, 12:38:25 pm »
Yes, it is always associated with a phone number, and you need to scan the QR on screen to authorise. If your phone goes out of reach, Whatsappweb stops.

Oaky

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Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #2 on: 27 July, 2018, 12:38:56 pm »
Yes - you need to be logged in on your phone to use the desktop client.
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ian

Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #3 on: 27 July, 2018, 12:40:17 pm »
WhatsApp is essentially a mobile messaging application. The big perk is that you can avoid SMS fees (using data, though iMessage etc. do the same) and create groups.

Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #4 on: 27 July, 2018, 01:32:54 pm »
The reason is  explained by greenbank here
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that's not science, it's semantics.

mattc

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Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #5 on: 27 July, 2018, 04:18:06 pm »
The reason is  explained by greenbank here
Crikey. I'd never have found that!  :thumbsup:
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #6 on: 27 July, 2018, 09:57:10 pm »
I've always declined to sign up because it insists on access to all my contacts. Whilst I can see the logic for a messaging app, it doesn't appear to me that I can possibly have the legal right to give WhatsApp (or any other such provider) the personal information of all my contacts.

Phil W

Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #7 on: 28 July, 2018, 02:17:42 pm »
Signal can be used on the Desktop. After initial setup the phone does not need to be connected to the Internet or even turned on.  Encryption by default, no logging of meta data (unlike WhatsApp servers), and you can also do direct device to device messaging with the Signal servers just facilitating the initial  exchange of the IP addresses to allow them to connect. You can also set expiring messages.

Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #8 on: 28 July, 2018, 05:33:44 pm »
Slightly OT, but WhatsApp runs happily on an Android tablet without needing a SIM card, provided that when you install it you associate it with a valid mobile number.

I ended up doing that as my elderly BlackBerry can't run apps.

Valiant

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Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #9 on: 15 August, 2018, 01:15:51 pm »
I've always declined to sign up because it insists on access to all my contacts. Whilst I can see the logic for a messaging app, it doesn't appear to me that I can possibly have the legal right to give WhatsApp (or any other such provider) the personal information of all my contacts.
It is a messaging app and more secure than SMS. So I don't really see the issue personally.
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.

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Kim

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Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #10 on: 15 August, 2018, 01:21:53 pm »
I've always declined to sign up because it insists on access to all my contacts. Whilst I can see the logic for a messaging app, it doesn't appear to me that I can possibly have the legal right to give WhatsApp (or any other such provider) the personal information of all my contacts.
It is a messaging app and more secure than SMS. So I don't really see the issue personally.

And herein lies the point:  It's futile trying to protect your contacts' contact details from Google/Facebook/whoever, because even if you're meticulously careful, there will be more than enough mutual contacts who don't see the issue who will have shared them already.

Valiant

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Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #11 on: 15 August, 2018, 01:25:45 pm »
Hello even if you are billy no mates and use the internet you'd still get spam calls almost straight away on a sim you've not even used.
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.

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Kim

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Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #12 on: 15 August, 2018, 01:47:09 pm »
Hello even if you are billy no mates and use the internet you'd still get spam calls almost straight away on a sim you've not even used.

That's just war-dialling, though, and is a mere irritation.  The risk of sharing your contact details with Big Data is that they can infer social connections using it.  (Eg. That recent case of Facebook recommending patients of the same therapist as potential friends.)

That horse dancing pig has well and truly bolted, though.  People, quite reasonably, want Google to back up their contact data to save them a load of faff if they have to replace their phone, and they're happy to share it with Facebook in order to use Whatsapp.  And even if they don't, their mutual contacts will do it anyway.

Re: Can you access WhatsApp purely from a PC?
« Reply #13 on: 15 August, 2018, 02:11:26 pm »
.... and this view might be hugely unfashionable, but I know I'm going to be marketed at, anyhow. I don't mind it being directed. Although most of the time it's laughable like advertising to me what I've just bought, once in a while it is useful.

On a slightly related note, recently I was about to buy an item, c. £400, from a dealer who obviously buys in to the advertising online as it kept popping up (from them) served up by one of the ad firms. As I was going to buy it anyhow, I thought, why not click on an ad from a site I visit frequently? Answer - when arriving at the site from the ad, prices were up by 5%.