How can I use Whatsapp video call on Linux?
I tried Whatsapp-for-Linux and Whatsie but they didn’t work.
You cant
There is no official whatsapp app for Linux and all of the apps on the store rely on whatsapp web
not even with wine?🍷
Actually I never tried with Wine… It may be an alternative
Last time I tried it (few months ago), it was booked :(
could Waydroid be used for this?
Waydroid has no camera passthrough. The only person willing to do that kinda vanished in Oct 2023.
You can’t send your video, receiving video and sending/receiving audio work.
Video calls are not supported under Linux afaik, since they don’t enable it for the web version.
I wonder if they’re supported on Windows with Chrome…? Maybe this is a case of simply replacing the UA string?
They don’t support calling in any browsers. If I recall correctly they’re using some kind of native library to encrypt and transcode the video, which the browser obviously can’t use. You need to get the native app on Windows and macOS.
Well they probably could get it to work in the browser it’s just that they didn’t. I wonder why?!
Probably performance. Transcoding video is slow enough without having to deal with the WASM overhead. Plus, browsers don’t do low level network access, so if they’re working on the tcp/udp layer they’d need to wrap the entire thing in WebRTC or websockets or something.
Doesn’t discord support video calls in the browser? Surely it cant be the e2e being the problem here? I didn’t know about the WASM overhead, I always thought of it as near native but I guess that’s not the case then? Websockets should work fine though right?
Discord uses unencrypted WebRTC, yes. I don’t know what WhatsApp uses, but the connection is encrypted.
WASM can’t talk to hardware encoders present on your CPU/GPU so performance will be severely impacted. It’s also plain slower than native code (2½-6 times depending on the kind of code).
Using websockets, or TCP in general, is terrible for live audio and video. Normal (video) calling protocols are designed so you can lose several packets and still continue talking with minimal disruption. Transmitting that through websockets will have minor traffic disruptions become major slowdowns. You also can’t do peer to peer in websockets like you can with WebRTC or native protocols.
Based on this blog post, WhatsApp seems to use SRTP to wrap RTP, combined with XMPP and Noise for metadata exchange. I suppose WhatsApp could wrap all that in WebRTC, but I don’t see the business advantage in revamping their entire protocol just so the dozens of “I hate Facebook” customers can call on their Linux machines. Especially as you need to run WhatsApp on an Android/Apple phone/tablet to have an account anyway.
You raise valid points and thank you for the detailed answer. It’s a shame wasm isn’t hardware accelerated, is that because of security or is it simply not implemented yet? (i can google this but I’m just wondering.) I agree that being able to call on a web browser is perhaps less necessary because of the phone having to be linked anyway, but it still would be nice to have :)
Discord uses unencrypted WebRTC
I’m a noob but how unencrypted are we talking about here? Can someone do a packet capture and reconstruct the video? Or like unencrypted at the machine level and other processes can see.
I’m guessing all the people suggesting to ditch WhatsApp have never been to Brazil. Everything there is done with it, you can buy groceries, medicine, do banking, get services, take out, etc… Getting the whole country to change will never happen. So, yes, while some of us do install Signal, none will ever uninstall WhatsApp…
What if Meta collapses and goes into bankruptcy?
We’re seeing the fallout from a commercial service used for public interest communication falling in real time with Twitter, so many public service things that depended or still depend on Twitter have outright broke as it turns into raw sewage and people flee it. That should have NEVER been the main communications medium, and now the price is being paid. I understand as i too am in a place where WhatsApp is near-mandatory, but this is something that WILL have bad consequences sooner or later.
Then people will have a reason to change other than just for privacy concerns…
People will switch to the russian whatsapp. Telegram. Nothing will change.
Pretty much the same in Mexico
The UK isn’t quite that far, but it’s absolutely the dominant text messaging and calling app in the UK. Nobody uses the built in Android or Apple tools anymore, and I’m as likely to receive a WhatsApp voice call as an actual phone call these days.
I have Signal on my phone, but I’ve literally never had a cause to use it; I’ve simply got no contacts on there.
Yup, WhatsApp is basically the Brazilian WeChat. If I uninstall WhatsApp I basically lose contact with my mom and a bunch of other people since I live in Canada.
my mom and a bunch of other people
People who aren’t very close to you are one thing, but wouldn’t your mom of all people be wiling to install Signal or your preferred alternative?
My mom is 70 years old and can barely use her phone. It took many years to convince her to get a smartphone.
They must be proud of Elixir.
Using an Android emulator like Waydroid or compatibility layer like Anbox you might be able to use the Android version on Linux and pick up calls from there?
I have good experiences with Waydroid, but no experience with WhatsApp so I can’t guarantee it will work, it’s just a suggestion that I hope will help
Waydroid has no camera passthrough
I’ve had really good experience with Genymotion android emulation on Linux, even on underpowered devices. Might work well to do video calls
Interesting
The web application, which is often repacked into “native” applications, doesn’t support calling. Waydroid doesn’t support audio/video in/output for WhatsApp according to various Github threads.
Your best bet may be to set up Android-x86 in a virtual machine and using USB forwarding to get video working. I’m not sure what you’d need to get sound working, though.
It’s also possible that Google’s development emulator can run this stuff, I recall it having a webcam forwarding feature at least, but I don’t know about audio or if WhatsApp will work on there.
BlissOS is a continued version of Androidx86
You can use jitsi both on mobile and desktop and it is platform agnostic, privacy respecting and FOSS. Just dont use whatsapp (video) at all.
Thank you, I like Jitsi but it is not always under my control. My supervisor sometimes calls me on Whatsapp and there is nothing I can do.
My supervisor was an FOSS guy. He used Linux, Libreoffice everything but he still insisted on whatsapp for informal communication. I guess network effects is hard to avoid.
You could mirror your android phone using scrcpy but I never used it.
There is a Qt version for it on Linux
Is it scrcpy?
Yes, that was it
Tell your supervisor WhatsApp doesn’t work on your computer and suggest any of the several dozen alternatives.
Good plan, and don’t mention that you use Linux. Just leave it nebulous so they don’t think they can “voluntell” you to install Windows instead.
For me the web version just says “my browser is not supported” even tho am on firefox
Step 1: Don’t.
Video calling using Signal on Linux works perfectly.
This doesn’t help when everyone else doesn’t “Don’t”
It helps having friends who actually respect you.
Why should everyone be forced to use their preferred messenger rather than the other way around? Especially when yours/mine has all of the same functionality and none of the ads or spying?
Because we are the minority. If people understood that, we would be living in an open source utopia already.
Not my problem that other people are too stupid to see how they’re being fucked.
Folks like you are part of the problem but you’re clearly way too far gone to realize it.
No, folks like you are the problem. Apathy is how we got here in the first place.
There’s plenty of good open source software that is user friendly, like VLC. The problem is other open source software that isn’t user-friendly and takes this whole "it’s the user’s fault" approach. Folks like you just jerk each other off about how smart open source users are and how dumb proprietary software users are and it’s just so cringy.
And how many peoples’ friends and family are on Signal vs WhatsApp? The whole point of these apps is socializing with people you know, so can you not see how useless of a suggestion it is to recommend Signal? And please don’t get into the "just convince everyone to use Signal’ argument because it’s completely unrealistic.
Signal did itself no favors when it made the bone-headed move of removing SMS support in a delusional attempt at pushing users away from SMS and towards Signal’s encrypted chat. All it did was result in a bunch of people uninstalling the app because it became annoying to use it just for Signal instead of Signal and SMS, which at least gave rise to a SMS user’s eventual shift away from SMS. But we don’t talk about that because open source is always good 😇
It’s like saying modern clubs suck, so I’m going to invest my own club that the vast majority of people won’t attend and those that do are almost all white dudes with the same generic "I’m not like other users" personality.
I already did but this guy ain’t looking for a solution. Next bro’s gonna call me a white guy.
The whole point of these apps is socializing with people you know, so can you not see how useless of a suggestion it is to recommend Signal?
…you can socialize with all of the same people on Signal? So no.
Signal did itself no favors when it made the bone-headed move of removing SMS
Signal had absolutely never done anything remotely as “bone-headed” as collecting user data and using it to serve you ads.
And please don’t get into the "just convince everyone to use Signal’ argument because it’s completely unrealistic.
It’s not unrealistic. Most people are happy to.
almost all white dudes with the same generic “I’m not like other users” personality
Ah yeah, this seems like a problem for casual racism…
Removed by mod
Goodbye racist
Soft, oh so soft.
this is the way
I know nobody who uses signal 💀
Using WhatsApp won’t fix it.
I can convince but it’s hard
It gets easier.
And you never will if you don’t tell them that’s the only way they can reach you.
As long as you continue allowing them to message you on WA, that’s what you’ll get. And everyone else will have to deal with the consequences of your actions.
Yeah, no. That’s not how the real world works. It’s funny to feel entitled but I can imagine my peers at my previous work saying go fuck myself if I ever told them they had to install whatever-you-say in order to be able to reach to you.
The real world separates personal and work.
I can imagine my peers at my previous work saying go fuck myself if I ever told them they had to install whatever-you-say in order to be able to reach to you.
It’s funny that you see this sort of “entitlement” as a one way street.
Only in my direction it aims to do nothing but preserve both your and your coworkers privacy and security and yours aims to preserve…Meta’s profits? What exactly are you defending again?
So weird how that works.
Your form of entitlement involves everyone working around your preferences, and you try to justify it with this weird paternalistic "I know what’s best for you" attitude. The higher you go with privacy, the lower the convenience, and at a certain point it goes past the point of what people are realistically prepared to sacrifice.
Removed by mod
It helps having friends who actually respect you. Rude people attract other rude people. Using WhatsApp won’t fix it.
Use Google Meet instead
@sandayle Don’t use WutzÄbb, Period
Ah yes, the obligatory “lol just don’t use $thing” response. Helps nobody, but I guess it lets you feel superior.
I hate Facebook as much as anyone, but in the real world people don’t always have the luxury of getting to use whatever you consider morally correct. Especially with a messenger – depending on where you are, Whatsapp might just be what most people are using, and the people are the reason you would use a messenger in the first place.
Ah yes, the obligatory “superiority” response. Because it’s nothing to do with trying to improve your situation or preserving your rights or the rights of others, it’s only about “superiority” LOL
I hate Facebook as much as anyone
I don’t think you do.
in the real world people don’t always have the luxury of getting to use whatever you consider morally correct.
Yes. They do. And the world is a shit place because they choose not to.
You’re delusional, buddy
How so?
Because for some reason the anti WhatsApp crowd fails to understand that the majority of the people using WhatsApp would lose any social life if they just uninstalled. It’s always the same. “Just don’t use WhatsApp!”. I’d literally not communicate with any of my family. I’d be the one weirdo that doesn’t use WhatsApp and that then maybe gets invited to things if somebody remembers to call me or write me a text message.
Your family seems kind of shitty if they would refuse to install another app to communicate with you. Especially if that other app serves everyone’s best interests…
I hate Whatsapp. I didn’t use it for three years, but I have to use it for the last two years due to my work.
@sandayle I’m really sorry about that and you have my fullest condolences. Nobody should be forced to use non-free software
People who say this in response to a request for help should just be perma-banned. Just get rid of them flat out. It’s the sure sign that someone is a total buffoon and will only ever make the place worse.
I think there’s value in pushback against popular but problematic software. Some people just don’t realize that, for example, WhatsApp is owned entirely by Meta and is known to collaborate with law enforcement, which are two facts that entirely undermine its main selling point.
Yes and if someone was looking for advice in general then it would be appropriate. Or if this were a security sub. Or, if you had a solution available and included a warning parenthetically as a courtesy.
But responding to a request for help with telling the person they should not do what they want to do is a tired old obnoxious cliché and nobody appreciates it. It’s universally hated.
Privacy is not the point of OP’s question. A good answer would’ve been saying there is no WhatsApp client for Linux, and then (optionally) explaining that Signal has a desktop client and is a also privacy-respecting choice. Insulting OP by stating “You should not use this or that” is such a StackOverflow thing and helps nobody.
Edit: Just to make sure: I’ve never used WhatsApp and never will use it.
Using WhatsApp is the only thing that makes this place worse.
Yeah, because he is using it for fun. You are totally right :)
