WhatsApp Passé? Rumors of demise unfounded - Audio calling and now WhatsApp Web - Woo Hoo!

So has WhatsApp gone passé - where younger folks are only SnapChatting?

And ever since its purchase by Facebook early last year, we've been wondering when the shoe would drop.

But so far, other than renaming the app WhatsApp Messenger, Facebook has kept hands off.

Plus, WhatsApp adding actual audio calls (as vs. audio snippets that's been around for some time) first on Android and this spring to iPhone has kept the excitement going.





So latest buzzy is WhatsApp Web -
This allows users to send text and audio snippets from the web without having to use - or away from - their smartphone usually used for whatsapp convos and groups.  This is a fabulous addition to this app that before it was smartphone only (and not even allowing use on iPads). 

So here's how to activate it.  

1. check out on your iPhone or Android phone the whatsapp Application and notice WhatsApp Web on the settings page,


2.  Select it, and it will instruct:  "Visit web.whatsapp.com on your computer".  When you do this, you'll come to the page pictured at the top of this piece that has a QR code at upper left.   

3.  So with that web page open, go back to your phone and your WhatsApp application.    Select What'sApple Web, and this time choose "Scan QR Code", pointing your phone at the web page.  


The app will read the QR code, recite "I got it", and the web page will then show your WhatsApp chats and let you initiate text chats and also audio snippets (not yet audio calls). 

4.  Your phone will then list the computers linked to your WhatsApp account.  You can at any time select "Log our from all computers" to sever the link you've created.  

5.  Back to the web page, notice that all your chats are synced, and any you create on the web show up immediately on your smartphone app.  
6.  And on the web page, you can even enable desktop notifications to receive alerts with new messages.  Do this by touching the menu icon on the left side and choosing notifications.



You can then enable alerts and/or sounds for new chat messages, and if enabled, can turn off alerts and sounds for a time. 
So from my reckoning, WhatsApp isn't dead yet!




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