WhatsApp’s new attempt at taking over your desktop isn’t bad, but it’ll kill your phone’s battery life

WhatsApp can now be used on your computer, offering a new way to communicate with your existing group of contacts saved to your mobile device. WhatsApp, and its owner Facebook, hopes users will now choose not to divide their time between different instant messages services, but rather restrict it to WhatsApp (and Facebook’s Messenger) on all devices.

WhatsApp built the new web client to mirror conversations on your phone. Messages, photos and contact details will still live on your phone, meaning conversations on your computer will depend on your phone’s battery life. While testing out WhatsApp Web, my phone’s battery died and with that my conversations. But I was warned: WhatsApp Web has popups indicating as much.

Interesting in trying it out? Make sure you’ve downloaded the latest version of WhatsApp and use Google’s Chrome web browser. Then follow these steps, as explained in WhatsApp below: