WhatsApp Desk is a fast, ultra-lightweight, privacy-respecting desktop client for WhatsApp Web.
Built with native operating system web engines — WebKit on macOS, WebView2 on Windows, and WebKitGTK on Linux.
Zero Electron bloat • Zero telemetry • Zero message relay servers • Complete local privacy.

⚡ Downloads

Get the latest stable release for your operating system (updated automatically):

| Platform | Recommended Installer | Portable / Archive | Requirements | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | macOS | Universal DMG | Universal ZIP | macOS 11.0+ (Apple Silicon & Intel) | | Windows 10 / 11 | Setup Wizard (.exe) | Portable EXE | Windows 10/11 x64 (WebView2 runtime) | | Linux | Browse Releases (DEB / RPM) | tar.gz Archives | GTK 3 & WebKitGTK |

[!TIP]

Download links point automatically to the latest release assets. You can also view all past versions and architectures on the Releases page.

✨ Key Features

• 🚀 Ultra-Lightweight Engine: Built directly on native OS webviews (WebKit on macOS, WebView2 on Windows, WebKitGTK on Linux). Minimal RAM and battery footprint compared to Chromium/Electron apps.
• 🛡️ Zero Telemetry & Private by Design: Communicates straight with https://web.whatsapp.com. No analytics tracking, no user profiling, and no proxy or relay servers.
• 👁️ Instant Privacy Mode & Auto-Lock: Quickly redact chat previews, sender names, and media thumbnails with a shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) or automatic lock on idle.
• 📄 Built-in Document & Office Preview: Instant in-app previews for PDFs, Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides, and text attachments without cluttering your drive with duplicate files.
• 🛠️ Windows Setup Wizard: Per-user installer with branded artwork, Start Menu and desktop shortcuts, and clean uninstallation in Windows Apps & Features.
• ⚙️ Unified Settings & Module Guard: Single accessible settings control (Ctrl+, / Cmd+,) protected by runtime module isolation (waRunModule) against unexpected DOM changes.
• 🔄 Built-in Self Updater: Automatic update notifications with cryptographic SHA256SUMS validation before applying updates.
• 🖥️ Per-Monitor Window Memory: Automatically remembers window position and dimension across multi-monitor setups.

📸 Application Preview

Note: Screenshots use blurred chat content to protect personal information.

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

| Feature | macOS | Windows & Linux | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Open Settings | Cmd + , | Ctrl + , | | Toggle Privacy Mode | Cmd + Shift + P | Ctrl + Shift + P | | Toggle Always on Top | Cmd + Shift + T | Ctrl + Shift + T | | Mute / Unmute Audio | Cmd + Shift + M | Ctrl + Shift + M | | Open Downloads Folder | Cmd + Shift + D | Ctrl + Shift + D | | Check for Updates | Cmd + Shift + U | Ctrl + Shift + U | | Hard Refresh Web View | Cmd + Shift + R | Ctrl + Shift + R | | Zoom In / Out / Reset | Cmd + + / - / 0 | Ctrl + + / - / 0 |

📦 Installation & Setup

macOS (Universal)

1. Download WhatsApp-Desk-macOS-Universal.dmg.
2. Open the DMG and drag WhatsApp Desk into Applications.
3. First launch: If macOS Gatekeeper alerts you, right-click the application and select Open.

Windows 10 / 11 (x64)

1. Download and run WhatsApp-Desk-Windows-x64-Setup.exe.
2. The setup wizard installs WhatsApp Desk per-user (no Administrator rights required) and adds Start Menu and desktop shortcuts.
3. SmartScreen Note: Since community binaries are unsigned (no EV certificate), choose More info → Run anyway.

Linux (Debian / Ubuntu / Fedora)

# Debian / Ubuntu (x64)
sudo dpkg -i WhatsApp-Desk-Linux-amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
Fedora / RHEL (x64)
sudo dnf install ./WhatsApp-Desk-Fedora-x64.rpm

Verifying Release Integrity

Every release ships with a signed SHA256SUMS checksum list:

# macOS
shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS
Linux
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
Windows PowerShell
(Get-FileHash .\WhatsApp-Desk-Windows-x64-Setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLower()

Privacy

WhatsApp Desk loads https://web.whatsapp.com directly. Session and cache data remain inside the application's local profile. The application does not add an analytics service or a message relay server.

Errors and crash logs stay on your machine. Nothing is ever uploaded automatically: the Control Center's Report button (or the post-crash nudge) only opens a pre-filled GitHub issue in your browser, which you review before submitting.

Default profile locations:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/WhatsAppDesk/UserData/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\WhatsAppDesk\UserData\
• Linux: ~/.config/whatsapp-desk/

📜 Release Notes & Changelog

All release notes, detailed change lists, and verification hashes are maintained on GitHub:

👉 View All Releases & Changelogs on GitHub

🛠️ Building & Releasing

Releases are built and published from a local machine, not from hosted CI. This keeps the release path independent of any runner account and makes every published artifact reproducible on the maintainer's machine.

bash release.sh --check          # verify the toolchain
bash release.sh 1.5.9.6 --dry-run # build and checksum, publish nothing
bash release.sh 1.5.9.6          # build, publish, and verify the download

release.sh refuses to publish unless updater.go already declares the same version, so a release can never advertise a version its binary does not report. It builds the macOS universal DMG/ZIP and the Windows portable EXE, ZIP, and Setup wizard, generates SHA256SUMS from the published asset list, and finally re-downloads an artifact to verify its digest.

Individual targets are also available: build_mac.sh, build_windows_installer.sh, and build_linux.sh (Linux packaging is currently maintained separately).

The Release workflow in .github/workflows/build.yml is manual-only for this reason; its job definitions are kept for use on a host with working runners.

License and disclaimer

Licensed under the MIT License.

This is an independent project and is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by WhatsApp or Meta Platforms, Inc. WhatsApp is a trademark of its respective owner.