Surely, you are tethered to WhatsApp for most hours of the day. And perhaps even the night. This ubiquitous messaging app has more than 1.5 million active users globally, of which 400 million are in India. Safe to say then, that you, your phone and your WhatsApp are inseparable. But that is the thing—it is always your phone that is the important link. Your phone has to be equally active (read be switched on and connected to the internet) for your WhatsApp life to move along. But that could soon change. And surely for the better.
The very nature of WhatsApp meant that you signed up with your phone as your identification. Along the way, we got desktop apps and access to WhatsApp Web on the web browser, that brought the convenience of your WhatsApp messages on your Windows PC or laptop or your MacBook or iMac—you didn’t have to look at your phone every time a new message landed on WhatsApp. These desktop clients were brilliant. But they weren’t exactly independent.
If we are to believe what the usually very reliable WABetaInfo has reported, we could soon have a WhatsApp evolution that won’t always require your smartphone to be party to the fun! The information that we have at the moment suggests that the PC app for WhatsApp, for instance, would work seamlessly even if your phone was switched off. There are no further details on how this would work, how the sign-up process will be designed and whether there will be any conditions to allow this to work.
In theory, this is a great idea. You won’t need your phone switched on and connected to 4G or Wi-Fi to send and receive messages. You won’t even need to wait if the internet connectivity on the phone is spotty, to send and receive messages. If we are to be given a way to authenticate it is us and this is our mobile number (which is already our WhatsApp identification), we will be able to use WhatsApp independently on the PC. Sending heavy attachments, audio clips and more would become incredibly convenient, thanks to the fact that WhatsApp on the PC will have access to that device’s internet line. And this is just one use-case.
There are examples within the Facebook family that indicate multi-platform support works well. Facebook Messenger can be accessed with the same credentials on the phone and the PC, for instance. If we were allowed the same luxury with WhatsApp on our desktops, laptops and the iPads, then it will all become incredibly more convenient. And perhaps annoying too, if you have very active friends.
It could still be a long wait though. We still don’t know when, if at all, the multi-platform WhatsApp becomes a reality.
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