How do two of the world’s biggest messaging platforms compare on the desktop?
This month Facebook, owner of the popular mobile messaging service WhatsApp dropped a great big surprise in everyone’s lap: a dedicated desktop app for Windows and Mac. For the first time ever WhatsApp users could access their messages on their desktop (and no, the shaky WhatsApp Web browser client doesn’t count). The desktop client of WhatsApp made it one of the few popular mobile messaging clients to also offer a standalone desktop application.
The other popular messaging client that also offers a standalone desktop app is of course Apple’s Messages. Messages for OS X has been around on the Mac forever in various forms. First as iChat, then as iMessage (when Apple unveiled iMessage for iOS), and now as Messages. But now that there are dedicated desktop clients of two of the most popular messaging clients on the planet, how do they compare? We took a look to find out.
Desktop WhatsApp vs Apple’s Messages: Design and functionality
Neither messaging client is radically different in its design. Both feature your standard list of ongoing chats on the left and your message thread for a selected chat on the right. As is to be expected, Messages blends more seamlessly, from a visual perspective, into OS X since it’s part of the operating system itself. WhatsApp on the other hand is heavily influenced by Android’s Material Design elements. If you’re using it on a Windows PC, that design fits in a bit more naturally there than it does on the Mac.
Obviously since both messaging apps are desktop clients they are built to use the full range of keyboard shortcuts and OS-level notification alerts that are allowed on both PC and Mac. Both apps also allow you to quickly dictate pre-recorded audio messages and send those instead of typing in text. They also both fully support the latest emoji supported by Windows and OS X.
Desktop WhatsApp vs Apple’s Messages: Cross-platform compatibility
When it comes to cross-platform compatibility, both have their pluses and minuses. A big plus of Messages is that it allows you to send messages to other Mac users as well as iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users. The drawback is you absolutely cannot communicate with Windows or Android users because there is no compatible client for those platforms. But a plus of Messages is that you can receive plain old text messages from non-Messages phone numbers…as long as your iPhone is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Mac.
WhatsApp does much better on the cross-platform compatibility. Now you can send and receive WhatsApp messages from a PC, Mac, Android, or iOS device. The drawback is that you can in no way receive text messages from phone numbers (which Apple’s Messages allows). Another drawback to the WhatsApp desktop client is that your phone must be present and on the same Wi-Fi network to receive WhatsApp messages.
Desktop WhatsApp vs Apple’s Messages: Document sharing and handling
As far as document sharing goes, Apple’s Messages wins hands down. You can basically send ANY type of file via Messages—all you need to do is drag that file uno a chat window. The current WhatsApp desktop client only allows you to send video, pictures, Office documents, or PDFs. It does not support most file types outside of those formats. Messages also organizes shared files better. Click on a message thread and then the “Details” button to see all the media you’ve shared with a contact in one easy-to-browse window.
Desktop WhatsApp vs Apple’s Messages: Audio and video calls
Though you can send pre-recorded audio snippets in the WhatsApp desktop client, you cannot initiate voice calling (as you can in the regular WhatsApp mobile app). There is also no support for video chatting. Apple’s Messages desktop client allows you to make both audio and video calls right from Messages to any other Messages client.
Desktop WhatsApp vs Apple’s Messages: Verdict
There’s no doubt about it: releasing a desktop WhatsApp client was a very good thing and will no doubt make chatting via WhatsApp easier and more convenient. WhatsApp is to be commended on a solid app with some solid basic features—rare for a pre-1.0 release. However—and only because it's been around much longer, Apple’s Messages desktop client is still able to do more: audio calling, video chats, better document handling, and the ability to receive text messages too.
For now Apple’s Messages win, however we expect Facebook to quickly iterate on the desktop version of WhatsApp. In time, it could become a better desktop experience than Apple’s Messages.
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