The WhatsApp Android app has become fantastic on Chromebook

I’ve been using WhatsApp across the board since the demise of Allo (remember Google’s Allo?) in 2018. In that time, I’ve largely relied on the web version for messaging from my Chromebook and things have been relatively good from that standpoint. Sure, the web version is less capable than the actual app, but it really only causes issues with calls, video chats, and some of the deeper settings. From a broad perspective, the web client is quite good for daily use.

But there are definitely times when I miss the native app’s abilities. Mainly it comes down to those times when my kids or wife call in WhatsApp or when I need to call them quickly. You know the drill, in the middle of a back-and-forth chat when the time clearly comes to either get on a call or show something via video, it’s nice to just hit the call or video button, get things sorted, and go back to what you were doing.

You can do it all from your Chromebook now

And that’s precisely where having the full-blown Android app comes in super handy for WhatsApp users like myself. The problem before now on a Chromebook is the fact that the Android version has been bound by its layout inferiority. In a desktop view, I want my chat list on one side and the conversation on the other, and the Android app has been incapable of this on Chromebooks in the past.

But earlier this year, WhatsApp finally began working on this issue for large screen devices, and now that we have a full-blown tablet/large-screen experience for the app, Chromebooks get to take advantage, too. I tested this a few months back and the tablet experience still wasn’t working on my Chromebook, but after trying it out today, things are looking quite good on the WhatsApp Android front, and I think my web app days may be behind me for now.

The app looks great with a split-pane view, extra shortcuts on the side (if you resize to a larger layout), and gives me the ability to take or make calls and (voice and/or video) just like I can with my phone. It’s the entire WhatsApp experience on desktop and so far, it’s working very well. I’ll be really testing it for the next week or so to make sure things like notifications and call clarity are on par with what I need to actually start using this on a daily basis. But things look good so far, and if you are interested, I’d suggest going and downloading WhatsApp from the Play Store to try it out for yourself.