Hands on: WhatsApp for Windows Phone [video]

By Tom Warren, on 19th Sep 11 6:11 pm with 12 Comments

WhatsApp messenger for Windows Phone will be available shortly so we’ve taken a quick hands on the hottest cross platform messaging app.

The WhatsApp team have hinted for several weeks that a Windows Phone version of WhatsApp would be made available soon. The company is currently privately beta testing an initial version of WhatsApp for Windows Phone and the XAP file for the application leaked to the Internet on Monday. We managed to grab a copy thanks to wpsauce.com and side-loaded it onto a Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” device to play around. All of the features of WhatsApp are available as you’d expect, including group messaging and location and picture sharing. WhatsApp is a widely used messaging application that allows you to share messages, photos and location information over your data connection with no hidden charges. The application is also available on iPhone, Android, Nokia and BlackBerry devices.

  • http://twitter.com/liambresnahan Liam Bresnahan

    Tom, how did you start the group chat? As I can’t see the option…. It’s been a long day, maybe my brain has fried…

    • http://www.winrumors.com Tom W

      It was an old group chat I had from another device. Doesn’t look like there’s a way to initiate one though :/

    • http://twitter.com/liambresnahan Liam Bresnahan

      Ah well. Hopefully this will be rolled into a future rev. Tbh the app feels a little rushed… But that’s if it becomes RTM, as it could just be initial betas….

  • Guest

    Más fino / nice :) … I like it

  • The

    Nice app but will we be able it to use directly from messages like Facebook chat or is it too early to see this sort of integration

  • http://twitter.com/domineus Malcolm Williams

    whats app wont even load on my device

  • Anonymous

    After the mango update, won’t this app and kik messenger be outdated? I feel like once live messenger and facebook chat are available through mango, all these messaging apps will die off sooner or later. Thoughts?

    • http://www.winrumors.com Tom W

      Definitely not. WhatsApp is convenient and works across a host of devices. It also supports image sharing and location sharing, something that doesn’t work across Messenger and Facebook on every device.

    • http://twitter.com/fillupt Philip Turnbull

      Doesn’t work, yet….

  • Usman Masood

    Seems to be quite laggy and loading time is horrible.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WUROVVOH7EIMFFFVSM5FJX4SOA Benjamin

    Great work so far in rushing up an app in such short time..
    hope the following things can be improved/included over time..
    e.g
    loading time,
    customized ring tone, 
    a search function within the contact list.
    Animation upon making a post.
    Ability to pin groups chats onto home screen with notification count showing. 
    Animation when jumping in and out of chats :P

  • Prince

    There is new Messaging application *PINCH* available in to the market and I think that is awesome application I have ever used. We can share Contacts, locations, images in messages. It has group chat feature also. It has gr8 look and feel and available for most available mobile operating systems.