Facebook-owned mobile messaging application, Whatapp, has launched a new desktop version, available as a Google Chrome applet. WhatsApp users on Android, Windows Phone or Blackberry will be able to send and receive messages via their computers as well as their smartphones.
If you have the iOS version of WhatsApp, however, you won’t be able to use the desktop version, “due to Apple platform limitations.”
“Our web client is simply an extension of your phone: the web browser mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device — this means all of your messages are still live on your phone,” WhatsApp wrote in a Blog Post.
WhatsApp which claims to have around 600 million users said its web service will be a ‘mirror’ and would require an internet connected phone to work.
WhatsApp was created by Brian Acton and Jan Koum in 2009. The two of them left Yahoo! in 2007 and applied for jobs at Facebook, but failed during the interview process. In February 2013, WhatsApp hit 200 million active users. One year later, Facebook announced that they acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion — which is the largest purchase of a company backed by venture capitalists. Now WhatsApp has over 700 million active users sending over 30 billion messages per day. In the product development pipeline, WhatsApp also has plans to launch a voice-calling service.
