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Use WhatsApp without a smartphone? (beehaw.org)

submitted 7 months ago by robin@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi. I'm thinking about switching to Linux on my smartphone. The only reason I can't is because in my country WhatsApp is everywhere and I'm expected to have it for various school/sport things. I'd like to setup whatsapp on my laptop, but I don't know how.

I know WhatsApp Web and Desktop exist, but in the past you needed to log in to your phone at least once a month for the web session to keep working. Is it that still the case?

Or can I just log in from Android (and be fine as long as I don't accidentally log out)?

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[–] pre@fedia.io 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

@robin@beehaw.org

Whatssapp is designed as a surveillance app, it's primary purpose is to collect data from your phone for Facebook to analyze, so they make it basically impossible to use unless it's installed on your phone.

[–] beeng@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

But Facebook bought WhatsApp in like 2015 was it?

So it wasn't designed with Facebook datascraping in mind.

[–] pre@fedia.io 2 points 7 months ago

@beeng@discuss.tchncs.de I wonder what proportion of the original code is still there. Not much I shouldn't think. The original app didn't ask for android permissions the way the modern one does, if only coz Android changed the way permissions work since then.

@robin@beehaw.org

[–] ccx@sopuli.xyz 1 points 7 months ago

Original WhatsApp was XMPP with phone number for your username. Pretty much what https://quicksy.im/ does now.

WhatsApp today is completely different beast.