Unofficial WhatsApp for Ubuntu

This repository hosts an unofficial WhatsApp desktop application specifically optimized for Ubuntu, providing a seamless messaging experience directly from your desktop.

Features

• Optimized Performance: Built with performance in mind for a smooth experience on Ubuntu.

• Native Feel: Integrates well with the Ubuntu desktop environment.

• All Core WhatsApp Features: Supports sending and receiving messages, photos, videos, documents, and voice messages.

• Voice & Video Calls: Microphone and camera permissions are granted automatically, so audio/video calls work out of the box.

• Desktop Notifications: (Known issue: Small bug in notifications - see "Known Issues" below) Receive desktop notifications for new messages.

Installation

You can install the Unofficial WhatsApp for Ubuntu by either downloading a pre-built release or building it from source.

Option 1: Download from Releases (Recommended)

Go to the Releases page and download the latest build. No snap confinement, so the microphone and camera work without connecting any plugs.

AppImage (portable, no install):

chmod +x unofficial-whatsapp-*.AppImage
./unofficial-whatsapp-*.AppImage

.deb (installs into your apps menu):

sudo apt install ./unofficial-whatsapp_*_amd64.deb

.rpm (Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE):

sudo dnf install ./unofficial-whatsapp-*.x86_64.rpm

Option 2: Build from Source

To build the application from source, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Jairodaniel-17/Whatsapp-for-linux.git
   cd Whatsapp-for-linux
   

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

   • Note: You might need to install npm or yarn if you don't have them already.

3. Build the application:

   npm run dist
   

   This creates the distributable packages (.AppImage and .deb) in the dist folder.

4. Run the application (for development/testing):

   npm run start
   

Option 3: Build the RPM (Fedora)

The rpm target of electron-builder is not used: it relies on fpm 1.9.3, which is incompatible with RPM 6 (the BuildRoot tag was removed, so fpm stages files where modern rpmbuild no longer looks). Instead there is a native spec file:

sudo dnf install rpm-build desktop-file-utils nodejs npm
./packaging/fedora/build-rpm.sh
sudo dnf install ./dist/unofficial-whatsapp-*.x86_64.rpm

The spec lives in packaging/fedora/unofficial-whatsapp.spec and declares real Fedora dependencies, installs chrome-sandbox setuid root, and drops the AppArmor profile (Fedora uses SELinux).

Performance

Hardware acceleration is enabled by default. On Intel/AMD GPUs this offloads rendering and video-call decoding to the GPU, cutting CPU usage, heat and battery drain. The app also asks for native Wayland via ozone-platform-hint and falls back to X11 automatically, and caps the V8 heap and disk cache so a long-running session does not grow without bound.

If your GPU shows rendering artifacts or a black window, disable it:

whatsapp --disable-gpu
# or
WHATSAPP_DISABLE_GPU=1 whatsapp

Auto-start on login is off by default and is toggled from the tray menu ("Start on login"). Previously it re-enabled itself on every launch.

Usage

Once installed, launch the application from your applications menu. You'll be prompted to scan a QR code using your phone's WhatsApp application (WhatsApp Web/Desktop option) to link your account.

Known Issues

• Notification Bug: There's a small bug affecting desktop notifications. While notifications generally appear, when you click on them, the application will not open or come into focus. I am actively working on a fix for this.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.