WhatsApp currently has a native app for computers running Windows OS, and it offers a lot of features and a slick look and feel. However, the app is about to get a lot worse due a questionable choice from Meta for the future development.

Meta has signaled that it will drop the native WhatsApp app for Windows and switch to a web wrapper. It will basically be a web app that is packaged to look like a Windows app. The latest beta version of the app for the Windows OS already includes the major changes that will soon come to the stable version of the app.

With this change, not only does the app look different from earlier, it also works slower in comparison. It will likely consume more RAM and its notifications won't be as good as they are on the native Windows version. It will be based on Microsoft Edge's WebView2 technology, which is better than Electron that was used to make the previous web wrapper version of the app for Windows.

The web-based app will bring one new feature, though: Channels. If, for some reason, you found WhatsApp channels helpful, you would be happy to know that you can access them on your Galaxy Book soon. There will be more functionality for Status and Communications features.

WhatsApp's native Windows version was launched in 2022, but will go away soon. The web version of the app that is replacing the native version is probably a lot easier to maintain for Meta, as they will have one less platform to maintain the codebase for.