Whatsie (beta)

A simple & beautiful desktop client for WhatsApp Web. Chat without distractions on Windows, OS X and Linux. Not affiliated with WhatsApp or Facebook. This is NOT an official product.

Whatsie is still in beta, so some features might not work properly. Bug reports and feature suggestions are welcome. Please check for updates here regularly in case the update process breaks and your installed version can't update by itself.

@devs: If you're willing to help improve, fix or maintain the app, I can make you a collaborator to help me. Join me on Gitter and let's chat!

Features

• Themes & Mini Mode
• Native Notifications (with reply on OS X)
• Spell Checker & Auto Correct
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Launch on OS startup
• Automatic Updates

How to install

OS X

1. Download whatsie-x.x.x-osx.dmg or whatsie-x.x.x-osx.zip
2. Open or unzip the file and drag the app into the Applications folder
3. Done! The app will update automatically

Windows

Installer:

1. Download whatsie-x.x.x-win32-setup.exe
2. Run the installer, wait until it finishes
3. Done! The app will update automatically

Portable:

1. Download whatsie-x.x.x-win32-portable.zip
2. Extract the zip and run the app
3. Done! The app will NOT update automatically, but you can still check for updates

Linux

Ubuntu, Debian (deb package):

1. Download whatsie-x.x.x-linux-arch.deb
2. Double click and install, or run dpkg -i whatsie-x.x.x-linux-arch.deb in the terminal
3. Done! The app will NOT update automatically, but you can still check for updates

You can also use aptitude:

gpg --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys 1537994D
gpg --export --armor 1537994D | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://dl.bintray.com/aluxian/deb stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install whatsie

Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat (RPM package):

1. Download whatsie-x.x.x-linux-arch.rpm
2. Double click and install, or run rpm -ivh whatsie-x.x.x-linux-arch.rpm in the terminal
3. Done! The app will NOT update automatically, but you can still check for updates

You can also use yum:

sudo wget https://bintray.com/aluxian/rpm/rpm -O /etc/yum.repos.d/bintray-aluxian-rpm.repo
sudo yum install whatsie.i386     # for 32-bit distros
sudo yum install whatsie.x86_64   # for 64-bit distros

Arch Linux (AUR):

1. Simply run yaourt -S whatsie
2. Done! The app will NOT update automatically, but you can still check for updates

Repository URL: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/whatsie/

For Developers

Contributions are welcome! Please help me make Whatsie the best app for WhatsApp Web. For feature requests and bug reports please submit an issue or get in touch with me on Gitter or Twitter @aluxian.

Build

Install pre-requisites

If you want to build deb and rpm packages for Linux, you also need fpm. To install it on OS X:

sudo gem install fpm
brew install rpm

Install dependencies

Global dependencies:

npm install -g gulp

Local dependencies:

npm install
cd src && npm install

Native modules

The app uses native modules. Make sure you rebuild the modules before building the app:

gulp rebuild:<32|64>

Build and watch

During development you can use the watch tasks, which have live reload. As you edit files in ./src, they will be re-compiled and moved into the build folder:

gulp watch:<darwin64|linux32|linux64|win32>

If you want to build it just one time, use build:

gulp build:<darwin64|linux32|linux64|win32>

For production builds, set NODE_ENV=production or use the --prod flag. Production builds don't include dev modules.

gulp build:<darwin64|linux32|linux64|win32> --prod
NODE_ENV=production gulp build:<darwin64|linux32|linux64|win32>

To see detailed logs, run every gulp task with the --verbose flag.

If you don't specify a platform when running a task, the task will run for the current platform.

App debug logs

To see debug messages while running the app, set the DEBUG env var. This will print logs from the main process.

export DEBUG=whatsie:*

To enable the renderer logs launch the app, open the dev tools then type in the console:

localStorage.debug = 'whatsie:*';

To open the webview dev tools, type this in the main dev tools console:

wv.openDevTools();

If you want to automatically open the webview dev tools, type this:

localStorage.debugDevTools = true;

Pack

OS X

You'll need to set these env vars:

SIGN_DARWIN_IDENTITY
SIGN_DARWIN_KEYCHAIN_NAME
SIGN_DARWIN_KEYCHAIN_PASSWORD

Pack the app in a neat .dmg:

gulp pack:darwin64:<dmg:zip> [--prod]

This uses node-appdmg which works only on OS X machines.

Windows

You'll need to set these env vars:

SIGNTOOL_PATH=
SIGN_WIN_CERTIFICATE_FILE=
SIGN_WIN_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD=
GITHUB_TOKEN (optional, in case you get errors from GitHub)

Create an installer. This will also sign every executable inside the app, and the setup exe itself:

gulp pack:win32:installer [--prod]

Or, if you prefer, create a portable zip. This will also sign the executable:

gulp pack:win32:portable [--prod]

These tasks only work on Windows machines due to their dependencies: Squirrel.Windows and Microsoft's SignTool.

Linux

Create deb/rpm packages:

gulp pack:<linux32|linux64>:<deb|rpm> [--prod]

Make sure you've installed fpm.