For a service that originally launched on iOS, it’s strange to think that one of its biggest new features is only now available on the platform.
WhatsApp came into life way back in 2009, when its biggest rival was BlackBerry Messenger. Since then a lot has changed including a record $22 billion cash and stock buyout by now-parent-company Facebook and expansion across a multitude of other mobile operating systems including Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Nokia S40 and Nokia S60.
At the end of January, 2015 the company launched WhatsApp Web an extension of the WhatsApp chat service that mirrors the experience found on a user’s phone. The client uses a QR code to pair phone to web browser and set up takes seconds.
Until Wednesday, the web client was available to every platform WhatsApp already supported except for iOS, with the company citing ‘platform limitations’ as the reasoning behind the feature’s absence.
Looks like WhatsApp Web is turned on for iOS. pic.twitter.com/qGYwlqahIi
— Krishna (@ofkrishna) August 19, 2015
Thankfully reports are now coming in that these ‘limitations’ have been overcome, as iOS users are confirming on Twitter that they can pair their devices to the web experience just as other users have been doing over the last eight months. It also appears that whilst the feature is now present, it hasn’t yet reached every iOS user, so don’t worry if you still can’t access the service, it’s coming.
It’s not clear as to what hurdles WhatsApp’s development team had to overcome to get the web client up and running on iOS, but we’re glad it’s finally here, giving potential access to all 800 million of the service’s users.
To set up WhatsApp Web go here on your web browser and look for ‘WhatsApp Web’ in the settings menu of WhatsApp on your smartphone.
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