Whatslectron: Whatsapp Web with Electron.
-
Hello everyone.
These days Whatsapp seems to have made a major update of its "Whatsapp Web".
This has positive and negative implications:
*Positive: calls are now available in Whatsapp web (you may need to join beta to have it)
*Negative: Whatsweb seems broken, it takes a lot of CPU and crashes, it seems inherent to Chromium 87 we'll see if it gets corrected.In the meantime I have published an application that allows to use Whatsapp web in a newer web engine through an Electron application. This will hopefully allow to enable calls.
https://open-store.io/app/whatslectron.pparent
Here are the current features:
- Audio calls, but audio quality may vary ( you currently need to enable "Beta" in whatsapp web to have calls )
- Sending and receiving text messages
- Notifications when keeping the app open
- Import / Export attachments via ContentHub
- Sending and Receiving audio messages
- Open URL externally via URLdispatcher
As this is early version there will probably be some small bugs. (Always try to restart or retry in case of a bug ). The application should benefit a lot from upgrade to Mir2.x when it happens.
Do not hesitate to post some feedback.
-
@pparent
Thanks for this.
I have tried and it works too on 24.04-2.x
Voice is working.
But can't be closed. -
Seems like it works. But for some reason, the icon is named Signal (this is a problem with Min Browser too).
-
I can confirm that voice call work properly for me, calling, receiving the call, ending the call. But the audio quality was pretty poor, usable but not pleasant at all.
It was not good either on desktop.
I made a call with Signal Desktop with this same contact right after the quality was infinitely better.
-
This is kind of strange that the icon is named Signal, I don't have the same thing.
-
P pparent referenced this topic
-
@pparent The icon is named Signal on my phone too
- the same is for Min Browser too.- N10, 24.04
-
Can you give a screenshot of the icon just to make sure we talk about the same thing?
-
@Vlad-Nirky said in Whatslectron: Whatsapp Web with Electron.:
I have tried and it works too on 24.04-2.x
On 24.04-2.x the keyboard does not work though, I presume, except if they have just fixed the bug.
-
-
@pparent said in Whatslectron: Whatsapp Web with Electron.:
This is kind of strange that the icon is named Signal, I don't have the same thing.
Maybe localization oversight?
-
Ok this is very strange, I do not have this behavior on none of my 2 phones.
I will investigate later.
-
Maybe localization oversight?
My phone's language is English...
-
@mihael so is mine.
-
Ha yes you are right, there is an Error on the english name. I will correct on later revisions of Min Browser and Whatslectron
-
I love this version, it's very fluid - it seems to me that it moves faster and without delays...
-
Yes newer Chromium web engine is way more efficient, but this should be even better when we can switch this app to Wayland (instead of Xwayland) and use the GPU to accelerate rendering, this will be when the system upgrades Mir to 2.x.
(Unfortunately there are still some few keyboard-related Quirks in this version that I will try to improve in the coming weeks.)
-
@pparent out of curiosity, have you considered attempting to bundle the Qt6 web engine statically? Similar to whatever is going on with Morph Qt6 version.
-
Yes but for now I needed something that works fast, and I know how to make an electron app work fast on UT, for now QT6 bundling is a bit more obscure to me.
Also I think Electron apps really have advantages for this kind of important and complex webapp, because it does not depend on the webengine of the system that can easily become too old, and it's way more flexible. Sadly he version of the webengine in Morph Qt6 is still a bit old, and not as performant as Chromium 140+ .
I know that electron apps currently have the disadvantage to run on XWayland, but it will hopefully be solved with Mir2.x release, making them more performant et more integrated to the system, and perfect for this kind of complexe webapp that are very sensitive to the browser engine version.
Also @chromiumos-guy is working on xdg_portal integration that will fursther help with better integration of electron apps into the system. ( Thanks! )
-
@projectmoon @mihael @vlad-nirky
I would like to maybe find a better name that "Whatslectron" because this is a name the I've found rapidly but it seems to long, at least for the icon.
I've been thinking in "Whatse⁻" "Whatsem" "Whatsep", ect... But I'm not 100% convinced by any of them.
Any idea or preference?
-
@pparent
whatsup ?
