An excellent Flatpak app to access WhatsApp messenger from your Linux desktop.
WhatsApp, the popular messaging platform for mobiles, has been popular in many countries. Users generally access it via mobile apps from the Play store or App Store. However, WhatsApp never launched any official desktop client for Linux.
Although you can always access WhatsApp using the browser, which is an official way of accessing your messages from any desktop, including Linux.
A new unofficial Flatpak desktop app arrives for WhatsApp, which you can seamlessly use to communicate.
So, what are the features available in this GTK app?
Table of Contents
Features of “WhatsApp for Linux”
With this new desktop app, Linux desktop users can enjoy all the familiar features of WhatsApp from their favourite desktop environment. All the functionalities, such as sending messages, sharing media files, and making voice and video calls, are now easily accessible on your Linux distro.
The “WhatsApp for Linux” app also offers keyboard shortcuts ensuring seamless navigation and interaction within the app. Using this app, you can zoom in and out to get a closer look at images and texts or switch to full-screen mode for a distraction-free chat experience. The app also includes a system tray icon, enabling quick access and notifications even when the app is minimized.
Additionally, you can customize the app to suit your preferences. By pressing Alt+H, you can easily show or hide the header bar, giving you more control over your workspace. The application also supports localization in your system language, ensuring you can communicate effortlessly with friends and family around the globe.
One of the noteworthy features of the WhatsApp for Linux app is its support for spell-checking in your system language. To enable this feature, you must install the corresponding dictionary, such as the hunspell-en_us package for US English.
Technical details
In case you are wondering, it is not an electron app. It is made using native C++, ensuring utmost performance and security. It has dependencies on various free and opensource libraries such as intltool, gtkmm-3.0, webkit2gtk-4.0, ayatana-appindicator3-0.1, libcanberra, and optionally, libhunspell for spell checking.
You can learn more about this application from the source code on GitHub.
Installation
First, you must set up Flatpak and Flathub for your Linux distribution. Use this guide to do that.
After installation, run the following command to install it.
flatpak install com.github.eneshecan.WhatsAppForLinux
You can find the app in the application list.
Running the app
After opening the app, the set-up is similar to the WhatsApp web. Open your mobile phone’s WhatsApp app and scan the QR code from the app. And that’s it.
Please note that it is an unofficial application; hence, use it cautiously. You can also check out GitHub for further details about this application.
