On January 21, 2015, WhatsApp announced on their blog regarding their new feature called WhatsApp Web, where a user could use WhatsApp on a web browser. Yes, you can now  send messages across to your contacts through the convenience of your PC/laptop. It’s essentially a web app rather than a native client, yet it’s really neat for those who don’t like to pick up their phone every other moment to reply to their pings.

This tutorial will walk you through on how to access WhatsApp on your PC/Laptop device.

Psst… Before you give this a shot, please make sure that WhatsApp is currently updated to the latest version on your phone. Or you’d end up scratching your head on how to scan the QR code to access the web version of the app. Also you DO NOT need an external QR code scanner app.

1] Visit web.whatsapp.com on your PC/laptop device using Google Chrome web browser. The WhatsApp web feature currently does not support other web browsers but they do intend to roll out on other browsers which is what it says while trying to access this in Mozilla Firefox. Upon visiting the website, you’ll see a QR code, just like the pic below.

 

2] The next step would be to go to your mobile app and navigate to the WhatsApp Web option.

 

3] Scan the QR code on the browser screen with the scanner on your phone. This is necessary, because WhatsApp uses your phone number and SMS verifications rather than usernames/passwords.

 

4] You should see your list of contacts on the screen as the web client gets activated after the QR scan. It takes an average of 2-5 sec for the QR scanner to scan the code. And you’re all set to ping your friends and let them know that you’re sending them messages using your PC/laptop.

 

 

Note: This feature currently works on Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry. Unfortunately for now, this feature isn’t available to iOS users due to Apple platform limitations.

Thanks to all of you, half a billion people around the world are now regular, active WhatsApp users. In the last few months, we’ve grown fastest in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, and our users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos every single day. We could go on, but for now, it’s more important that we get back to work – because here at WhatsApp, we’re just getting started.

Viber, which is another instant messaging app for smartphones like WhatsApp, already has a desktop version for its big user base.

Could this be the next step of expanding WhatsApp to an even bigger scale by tapping on to its half a billion user base all around the world?

Well let’s keep that decision to the folks at Mountain View, CA.