How would I go about running Whatsapp on Librem5?

I’m really interested in Librem5 but my social and business life depends heavily on Whatsapp - the only app I truly need.

Can someone please help me understand how I can go about using it on Librem5? Sign into the web version of Whatsapp? But that requires a login from the app first.

I would order it immediately if I can fix this issue

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That topic came up yesterday in another thread - see:

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You can install Android Whatsapp app on Librem 5 (or any other GNU/Linux computer) via Anbox. It is not a perfect solution, but it works. This will also give access to most Android apps on Librem 5.

So, yes. You can order the phone now BUT I would hightly recomend to preorder Fir batch (aka Librem 5 V2). You can do that now by ordering Librem 5 and then writing email to purism support with your order number and ask to put your order under Fir batch. In that way you will get your L5 Fir faster. If you are rich American, you can order both L5 Evergreen and L5 Fir. You will receive L5 Evergreen roughtly after 3 months. L5 Fir will take longer.

L5 Fir (unlike L5 Evergreen), will contain an actual 14nm mobile SoC, which will not be a power-whore.

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Am I the only one who feels like Whatsapp is like cigarette or coffee ?

Once you’ve started, you’re fu**ed

There is more and more posts about this addiction on this forum :smile:

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And you do not need a connected phone running whatsapp to be able to connect or setup an account?

Just installed and ran Anbox on my trusted Dell Ubuntu machine.

It crashed…

Agreed. :rofl: I’m sort of amazed that anyone here, who presumably is totally onboard when it comes to the kill-switches and sandboxing, would then turn around and install a Facebook product. I know how prevalent WhatsApp is, though, and how it’s considered indispensable to many users.

I do recognize that I’m probably more rabidly vitriolic toward Facebook, their business model, and the effect they’re having on the internet and personal privacy, than most people, however. :rage:

Edit: Sorry…I meant to respond to @fralb5, not @wimdows. My bad…

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You do not realise how right you are…

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Out of curiosity: Why are you specially interested in Librem 5? What are YOUR personal reasons that make the device your number one choice?

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Agreed, getting away from EVERYTHING I can that is associated with fakebook, google, big tech, etc is why I will have a Purism laptop and, eventually, phone! I’ll never use whatsapp.

The whole computer or just Anbox?

Just Anbox (of course :slight_smile: ). No messages.

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What’s wrong with coffee, btw?

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You misspelled “devil urine.”

well when i read the title of the post, i thought, WTF??? why buy a phone guaranteeing security of personal data, to install the nearly ultimate data whore on it, planning for the whole insanity combo together with facebook, instagram etc???
go for a cheap chinese android phone, at least, there, you don’t have to care who listens in, because you know that every conceivable agency does…

Most, but not all. How about this:

That as things stood, I didn’t think it was possible to have free and fair elections ever again. That liberal democracy was broken. And they had broke it.

(from My Ted talk: how I took on the tech titans in their lair)

I do feel very sorry for some people who find themselves under pressure though. A while ago I read about someone with a relative who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the extended family immediately set up a WhatsApp group to help them keep up with the situation. What was this person supposed to do under those circumstances? Start agitating to switch to a different platform? Be the one person in the family “who didn’t care enough” to join the group? (That is how the others would have seen it, of course.) AFAICR he hadn’t decided what to do when I read about it, but it is a horrible situation for anyone to find themselves in.

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One solution might be to use a whatsapp/xmpp bridge and a jabber client on the Librem5. @amosbatto wrote about the possibility, but I don’t know whether someone already tested this setup.

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@wimdows : Every people I know who drinks coffee regularly, at some point said something like ‘I can’ t do anything if I don’t have my coffee’, they are allllllllways tired without it, EVERY … ONE …OF …THEM

@Gavaudan : omg, I laughed so hard :rofl:

@nohkumado : Well, same here, but I think it’s the first step to a better way (when I switched to linux, at first, I kept some windows soft with wine), and it helps Purism to produce my futur phone, so welcome to @pjkaka :wink:

@pjkaka : sorry I didn’t mean to disturb your thread that much with my comment, I hope you found / find your answer here

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If I remember correctly, once you have a Whatsapp account set up, there is an option to use it from a web browser. If that is still the case, you could isolate the mobile application inside Anbox (for the rare case where you need to reverify your account or some such), and just use the browser version normally.

It’s also possible someone in the future will develop a Bitlbee plugin for it, so keep an eye on that.

@fralb5 I can’t say you know me, but I’m your regular coffee drinker who can very much take it or leave it (and I drink strong coffee). There are two reasons (beyond liking the taste) I drink it. First is if I have to get up earlier than I normally do (especially if it’s up at the crack of dawn, in the bitter cold, to go looking for Bambi). The second is to regulate my sleep schedule. If I go more than 2 weeks without coffee, I start getting up later and staying up later. I’m one of those people who would quite happily work graveyard shifts, as (without coffee) I’d get up at 1PM and stay up till 7 AM.

The key to avoiding dependency on coffee for basic functioning is to wait until you are awake before imbibing. I get up around 8 AM, and don’t drink coffee until around 9 AM.

I use Whatsapp to keep in touch with my parents and relatives. My business partners also use it extensively. I would personally never want to use a Facebook product but asking practically 30+ people to change to a different tool is a little too much, especially when a lot of them are older folks who struggle with technology.

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