WhatsApp, the Meta-owned instant messaging platform, has dedicated apps for various platforms, including Android, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, wearOS and Windows. These apps not only make messaging much easier but also come with numerous under-the-hood optimisations that make it much more useful than the web version.
However, a new report by Windows Latest suggests that Meta is now dropping the native Windows app in favour of a web wrapper. The change comes with the latest version of WhatsApp beta for Windows, which looks significantly different from the current version of the app available for download on the Microsoft Store.
To give you a quick recap, the desktop version of WhatsApp was launched back in 2021 and eliminated the need for users to use the browser version of the instant messaging app.
Here’s what the new web wrapper looks like.
What’s changing?
While the reason behind the move is still unclear, it appears that the shift to a web wrapper may make it easier for WhatsApp developers to add new features, as maintaining a single code base that extends across various platforms is far easier than working on different versions.
This may sound like a good decision at first, but many users have flagged that the web version of WhatsApp consumes more RAM and resources compared to the native version that’s currently available on Windows. The publication said that in its testing, the new version of WhatsApp used approximately 30 per cent more RAM than the native app.
However, the biggest downside is that Meta itself said that the web version of WhatsApp is slower than the currently available native Windows app. Also, the web wrapper looks out of place on Windows as it misses out on the Fluent Design System, which, like Google’s Material 3 Expressive and Apple’s Liquid Glass, is a set of guidelines for designs and interactions for Windows 10 and Windows 11 apps.
And since the new WhatsApp for Windows app is a web wrapper, notifications will also work differently from the native version. But since the web version of WhatsApp has some extra features, they will most likely be available on Windows as well.
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