This post is all about why I think WhatsApp Web is your Friend. Or at least it should be. I decided to write this post after a tweet by fellow #DataWeekender organiser, Mark Hayes. Mark said recently that he just discovered WhatsApp Web. We use WhatsApp for lots of Dataweekender team communications, and I could have sworn I’d mentioned WhatsApp Web to him and the rest of the team back when we started. But he must have missed what I said, so I thought I’d write this post to make people aware of a pretty useful feature offered by WhatsApp and Facebook that I’m sure some but not all users of WhatsApp will be aware exists.

Do you use WhatsApp?

You might not. This post has the potential to split opinion. I come across people all the time that either refuses to use or don’t like WhatsApp. These people have given me several excellent reasons for their position –  including security and how Facebook uses your data. I understand your reasons they are perfectly valid. I know many people though that are happy to use WhatsApp. I would say that most people I make contact with make use of WhatsApp in some capacity. Let me assume that you do and carry on with the post and I’ll explain why I think WhatsApp Web is your Friend.

Why I use WhatsApp

I’m a regular user of WhatsApp. I use it for business, and personal use and I have done for my many years now. There is one main reason I use  WhatsApp, the group chat functionality. On my WhatsApp, I have groups for friends, family, and also for business, work colleagues and clients. It works very well. The group chat functionality and the fact its multi-platform are all significant benefits. It works on iPhone and Android set it apart from iMessage, which I previously used for group chat. About everybody has a phone, and most people have it on them all the time, so it is an excellent way to ensure your message gets across quickly.

If you answered yes to the WhatsApp question, you might be interested in WhatsApp Web (web.whatsapp.com). One of my initial frustrations with WhatsApp was that I thought I had to use it just from my phone. For example, when connecting for work, I might want to send a message to someone, perhaps not on Teams. Or heaven forbid they don’t have slack or email on their phone. The chances are they have a phone, and they have WhatsApp. I can contact them using WhatsApp and get a message straight to their phone. To do that I have to move away from my computer and use a different device. Or if I want to share a screengrab of information from my laptop, I could end with a slightly grainy, pixilated photo of my screen from my phone. So again, whilst it is good, it’s not ideal. Until we introduce WhatsApp Web. WhatsApp Web is your Friend.

WhatsApp Web is Your Friend

I discovered the WhatsApp web functionality a long time ago. How long ago, I don’t remember but the web interface has made my experience of WhatsApp much more pleasurable and WhatsApp, in general, a much more useful tool for me. You can access WhatsApp Web direct from your browser on your PC/Laptop through the web interface. Accessing it on a PC makes using it for work, typing long messages, sending files etc. much more straight forward. If you also believe the marketing it’s encrypted too.

How to access WhatsApp Web

It’s a simple process to access what app web.

1. On your laptop/PC, visit https://web.whatsapp.com/.
2. You will see a QR code and some instruction on signing into the web app.
3. Switch to your phone and open the WhatsApp app
4. Click on the setting option from the WhatsApp app.
5. Choose WhatsApp Web/Desktop
6. Click Scan QR Code and scan the QR code on your screen.

That will give you access to WhatsApp and all those group chats on your PC. Your phone does need to have internet access for WhatsApp Web to work, I assume that is no issue for most people.

Practical Use of WhatsApp for Work

I have found several uses for the WhatsApp web tool.

Team communication: You might be working on a release or significant upgrade with people from different teams. It’s plausible that your work may be at unsociable times of the day, or night. When you have finished your tasks on the plan you may want to update the next person “on point” in the plan. Using WhatsApp you can send them a WhatsApp message so everyone can follow along with the plans progress. You can do that right from your PC that you have been using to complete your work. As I said we used WhatsApp for team communication during the two  #DataWeekender and it worked really well. WhatsApp web made it even more useful for me

Other users include

• Problem Solving – collaborating with people
• Marketing and Social Media Activity

On this last point, we have a group on WhatsApp to let people know when we have posted a blog or LinkedIn post for marketing and social media activity. The people in the groups are SQL Server/Data platform bloggers, and we help each other out with engagement on the content. If this interests you, then please do read more about that here, feel free to get involved if it sounds like your thing but the point is reading social media posts and engaging and commenting I find best from my computer, which is where  WhatsApp web is my friend and it comes in useful.