WhatsApp’s success in countries like India, Brazil, and South Africa is of course driven by the high penetration of smartphones in those markets, but giving power users–especially people who rely on WhatsApp for work communications–desktop options helps it competes against other messaging services, like iMessenger, WeChat, and Skype. The company said in an announcement “our desktop app is simply an extension of your phone,” with all messages synced between devices. People who have already been using WhatsApp in their web browsers will find that the software isn’t significantly different. The release comes about 15 months after WhatsApp released its first web app.
WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service that claims a billion users, has launched desktop clients for Mac and Windows.
