WhatsApp, WhatsApp.
An incorporation that pisses everyone off and still has nearly 500 million users. 500 Million!
That was a bittersweet introduction but I had to do it because I’m a WhatsApp user and I can’t be satisfied with their behavior towards other companies at all. There should be understandings, you say? Well I’d say the same but it has to be a 2 way road.
You see, WhatsApp Inc. , now part of Facebook, is available for iOS, Android, Nokia S40, Windows Phone, Symbian, BBOS and the freaking web itself. Yet is it not available for Sailfish OS or as a matter of fact Ubuntu OS nor Firefox OS. Not officially, at leat.
You would say that all those three latter operating systems have less market share than only one of the bigger operating systems combined. That I would call a fair argument but when someone, a developer of some sort, wants to help out his own community and build an app based on Whatsapp protocols [With the option to pay the yearly subscription fee, so there’s no piracy going on] they go ahead and block the damn thing as soon as they find out and as far as I’m concerned [Though I may as well be wrong] those blocked applications such as Mitäkuuluu had done no more harm to anyone that the normal WhatsApp does.
I may be seeing things subjectively and I may be wrong in all I’m saying but at some point I have a point! We as users should have the freedom of using free services such as WhatsApp (Well, free for a year, eh?) on any platform that we like. How’s that for a change?
However, in the days of Nokia N9, there was a developer called Matias (Cepi) Perez from Argentina who had developed a WhatsApp client for MeeGo called “Whatsup” which never ever got caught/banned from WhatsApp, ever, and that is good news. The reason, according to Cepi is that he uses S40 protocols and never changes any core code so the app will actually come up as an official app and it almost never gets caught, at least that’s what I hope.
For now, he is working on a port for Sailfish OS which is currently in the testing phase with a few community members including me (Screenshots below) and admittedly the app is looking damn beautiful in compare to any official WhatsApp client!
The Chat page, Conversations and the Active Cover (Non interactive as for now)
Downwards pulley menu for sending and receiving files – Settings menu
Now, I’ve got to say, after all the rant on WhatsApp, this WhatsUP thingy works pretty well as it did on N9!
Registration works with no hassle, the UI is smooth and beautiful and almost lag-less, and the whole thing feels right. There are points that has to be ironed out and bugs that are going to be fixed when the public version hits the OpenRepos.net
I know many Jolla Users who will completely let Android support go after a stable WhatsApp client gets released for Sailfish as a native app! So why not taking some time and donating to Cepi while he’s doing this amazing job of porting his long awaited precious app to our beloved phone?
You can easily donate to Cepi via PayPal for his amazing job and while of course it’s on your own will and it is optional, considering it would be a nice gesture which shows how big and strong our community is.
Note: No ETA as of yet but I can tell from the state of the app that it’ll be released pretty soon in the coming weeks! Fingers crossed.
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