This WhatsApp Web service was first introduced by the company in January 2015, however, functionality was not available for iPhone users until relatively recently. WhatsApp has finally added iPhone support to its WhatsApp Web client, and I bring you everything you need to know about how to have WhatsApp Web on the iPhone.
WhatsApp Web was first introduced by the company in January 2015, and was well received by users of the popular messaging client. However, the functionality was not available to iPhone users, and while the rest of the WhatsApp community enjoyed the benefits of a desktop WhatsApp client, iOS users left behind, until now.
WhatsApp has finally added iPhone support to its WhatsApp web client, and we've got everything you need to know about setting up and using the service. Let's see it!
How to configure WhatsApp Web on your iPhone: What is WhatsApp Web?
WhatsApp Web is a relatively new web client, announced by the company on January 21, 2015, and offers WhatsApp users the opportunity to access their WhatsApp messages on a PC or Mac. It also meant that users of the popular messaging client could directly save received messages or files to their computer, rather than having to first save them to their smartphone and then transfer them.
There were a handful of restrictions with WhatsApp Web when it was first launched; Firstly, only Google Chrome could be used to access the WhatsApp website and secondly, it was not available for iPhone users due to the "limitations of the Apple platform". This meant that Android, Windows, Blackberry and even Nokia Symbian devices could access the service, but iOS users were left in the lurch.
However, as of August 2015, the company has enabled WhatsApp Web for iOS devices, meaning iPhone users can now send and receive WhatsApp messages on their Mac or PC. It's quite peculiar that the company added support without announcing it, with the news coming via a WhatsApp user on Reddit.
The company now allows the use of other browsers to access the WhatsApp web client, although it is suggested when accessing the site through Safari to switch to Google Chrome, Opera or Firefox.
How to configure WhatsApp Web on your iPhone
To achieve this, you simply have to follow the following steps:
- First make sure you are running the latest version of WhatsApp on your iPhone. While many new features require an app update, there is no update available to enable WhatsApp Web.
- Now open WhatsApp and access the menu Configuration. There should be a new menu called "WhatsApp Web" - touch it.
- On your Mac, go to web.whatsapp.com. Technically, you can use any browser to access the client (we're using Safari), but WhatsApp recommends using Google Chrome, Opera, or Firefox.
- On your iPhone, within the WhatsApp web menu, press "Scan QR code". Follow the instructions on your iPhone and align your QR code scanner with the QR code displayed on the WhatsApp website. Once aligned, you should see a pop-up window on the screen confirming that the setup was successful.
- And that would be it! You can now send and receive WhatsApp messages, as well as access all received media (including voice memos!) on your Mac.
WhatsApp Web problems
One problem that you may think you are going to have is the large accumulation of WhatsApp notifications on your iPhone. However, As soon as you read the message on your Mac, the notification will disappear from your iPhone's lock screen/notification center.
Deleted messages should also be synced between the two clients, although some users have reported problems with this feature.
The WhatsApp web client will also show chat notifications whenever you receive a new message, which is a great feature to have, but not if you're using a shared computer.
However, don't worry, because There is a way to turn off notifications. From the WhatsApp web interface, tap the menu button (three dots) and select the Notifications submenu. From here, you can disable the notification pop-up and the accompanying sound, or alternatively, you can disable notifications for a specific period of time.
Conclusion
One of the main advantages of WhatsApp Web is that you can quickly write messages and send them to your contacts; A single message can be sent to multiple contacts by copying and pasting the text. In addition, you can also download images, audios and videos directly to your computer.
This is how you can use Whatsapp Web on iPhone. As always, I hope the steps mentioned above were able to help you. If you still have any problems, feel free to leave us a comment.