

Ask HN: Why WhastApp Web is currently only available on Google Chrome? - kenrick95

If I can ask more specifically, what are the features that is being used in WhatsApp Web such that it currently can be available only on Google Chrome?
I&#x27;ve tested to trick WhatsApp Web through changing my User-Agent, and the Firefox &amp; IE fails (errors in console). Hence I think there is some feature that is Chrome-specific only, but what is this feature? Can anyone point it out?<p>Thanks.
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mszyndel
Technically because it uses filesystem API available in Chrome which is non
standard. But really - because they don't get it...

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mtmail
Yes, came back here to correct my comment. They're using the
requestFileSystem.
[http://caniuse.com/#feat=filesystem](http://caniuse.com/#feat=filesystem)

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buttscicles
Same reason it's only on android, I believe it uses some API specific to
chrome & android. Not sure exaxtly what, though.

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mtmail
Maybe
[http://caniuse.com/#feat=serviceworkers](http://caniuse.com/#feat=serviceworkers)
I'm just guessing.

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nsm
Serviceworkers only shipped in Chrome 40 which was released on Jan 30, so that
is not the reason. it is the filesystem api.

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new_user_name
Why am I not able to see any AJAX calls in the network tab of Developer tools!

What's the magic here?

