WhatsApp’s experiment with “universal” PC apps didn’t go well, and native apps have been in development for some time to improve the Windows and Mac experience. Now it’s Apple’s turn.

So the application WhatsApp for macOS It has just progressed through its development phase and is already available as an open beta, meaning that any user can now install it knowing that it is not yet considered stable and may be prone to causing some type of bug.

According to WABetaInfo, the new WhatsApp app for macOS was developed with Mac Catalyst, which would make the app easier in the future, in addition to macOS, also on the iPadalthough this extreme is not confirmed and is required to run macOS Big Sur or higher.

This new WhatsApp app for macOS will replace when it reaches its stable version to the current one, developed using Electron technology and called for extinction in favor of native, which offers better performance, more stability and integration with the environment. Basically the same as the new native Windows app.

In particular, WhatsApp was first released on PC as a web application and from there made the jump to the desktop through Electron technology, a set of tools based on web technology that facilitates the development of cross-platform applications, with a performance penalty or integration, among others.

WhatsApp for macOS | Image: WABetaInfo

However, developers use Electron for many of today’s very popular applications, whose cross-platform existence would be at least complicated if they chose native technologies for each operating system. Examples of successful Electron applications are Visual Studio Code, Discord, Slack and long etc.

However, Electron turned out not to be the ideal choice in all cases, and WhatsApp was the paradigmatic solution, as the Electron app it released for Windows and Mac is anything but – as is the case with many Electron apps on the market. – than an encapsulated web application. and no, WhatsApp Web is not going away.

So in Meta, they postponed the development of WhatsApp with Electron, and if for Windows they decided to develop a native application under the UWP paradigm (which, after all, uses the same background technologies, but a different wrapper), for Mac they did the same with native desktop technologies.

Although WhatsApp Web will continue to exist, macOS users will soon have a consistent replacement that they can try now if they wish. More information in this link. Of course, be careful because installing this beta replaces WhatsApp for macOS in Electron.