Whatsie, a WhatsApp client for Linux worth taking into account

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of WhatsApp. First, because it is owned by a company that is not exactly famous for respecting user privacy, although they have recently begun to encrypt all their end-to-end connections. Later, because it does not have a desktop client as they do have Telegram and practically all the applications of the competition. But not all my contacts think like me. In fact, practically all my contacts use WhatsApp and not another messaging app, so I have to end up using the app now owned by Facebook. But wouldn't it be nice if we could use WhatsApp without relying on the browser? Well this is possible thanks to whatsie.

How to install Whatsie

Taking into account that the official method to use WhatsApp from a desktop computer is from the WhatsApp Web page, I would be surprised to see a native application in Ubuntu's default repositories, although not too much because there are applications in other application stores . That said, you may have imagined that Whatsie cannot be installed with the command sudo apt-get install, or not until using other commands first. To install Whatsie you have to open a Terminal and write the following commands:

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

Alternative option

As I see that it is giving errors to some users, you can also enter the repository from the browser and download the Whatsie .deb package. Once downloaded, double click on the package and the installation will be prepared. The web is ESTA Authorization.

Chatting with WhatsApp from Whatsie

The first positive point that Whatsie and other desktop applications of this type have is that does not force us to have the browser open, but those are not its only advantages. From the menu App from the top bar we can:

• Launch the application at system startup (with option to see nothing).
• Check and self-correct spelling.
• That Whatsie is always visible (Float on Top).
• Add an icon to the top bar (Tray).
• Open the links in the browser or in Electron (pop-up window).

In addition, Whatsie also allows us to use some themes that it has installed by default. The one you see in the previous screenshot is the «Gray». For everything else, its use is practically the same as what we would do from web.whatsapp.com, but I think it is worth having an application and, while we wait for a version that does not depend on the smartphone (something that I think will never come), I think Whatsie is the best option we can use in Ubuntu. What do you think?