According to Windows Latest, popular messaging service WhatsApp is downgrading its Windows 11 app to a WebView2 equivalent in the latest update, switching from a native Windows application to a web wrapper that loads the browser version instead.
As a result, Windows Latest reports that WhatsApp version 2.2584.3.0 can use up to 2 GB of RAM under heavy conditions, which seems like a pretty wild amount of memory usage for what is essentially a chat service with image and video support. The app was originally based around a web wrapper, but switched to a native Windows UWP version several years ago.
As most of my friends and family use the service, I've got the old WhatsApp version open on my machine at all times. It's currently sitting at 124.6 MB of RAM usage with many ongoing chats open, so this sounds like a significant downgrade for an app that, for many, is their primary way of keeping in touch with their pals.
I haven't received the update yet, so I've been unable to test it myself to confirm these figures. Windows Latest, however, says it's been told "all users will be logged out eventually and forced to use the WebView2-based WhatsApp."
It's worth noting that the browser-based WhatsApp page will likely continue to work as it ever did. Some of our team use it regularly to update our WhatsApp daily deals channel and report that it currently tops out at around 400 MB per tab when it's running by itself, which seems much more reasonable. I mean, it's still pretty heavy for a single website tab, but who are we to talk?
The reasons behind this web-based change remain unclear, but by the sounds of it, the Windows 11 WhatsApp, err, app, is about to get a whole lot worse for PC users. I would suggest that you could always buy an extra stick of RAM for your machine to compensate for its memory-gobbling ways, but it's not like that's cheap at the moment, either.
And just to top it all off, Meta already has plans to increase the use of advertising in WhatsApp, which I can't see doing anything other than making the app slower to use. Can we stop making things worse for five minutes, please? It's ruining my chilled out vibes.
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