How to use whatsapp on your PC?

WhatsApp group chat

Using WhatsApp on Windows PC Without an Emulator

WhatsApp is one of the commonly used cross-platform mobile messaging applications. On it, you can communicate with your friends for free (as long as you have Wi-Fi or a data plan), which is a lot cheaper than using short-messaging. However, WhatsApp only available for mobile devices officially (i.e. Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Symbian smartphones).
The most common way to install WhatsApp on a personal computer is by using Android Emulators such as BlueStacks. However, emulators can be resource-hungry, especially if you're only going to use it for messaging. In this article, learn how to use an open-source instant messenger—it's lightweight and free to download. Currently, the binary builds are available for Windows and Linux (Mac users may need to compile the source themselves).

How to Use WhatsApp on Pidgin

Pidgin, otherwise known as the universal chat client, is an all in one, easy to use and free chat client used by millions of people. It can connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, and more chat networks all at once, and their plugins feature extends this possibility further.
WhatsApp on Pidgin: Step-by-Step Installation Instructions:

1. Download and Install the latest Pidgin or its portable version. I prefer the portable version because I don't need to set up Pidgin all over again when I reinstall my PC or move it to a different PC—just simply copy the whole directory.
2. Download the latest Pidgin's third-party Plug-ins for WhatsApp (available for Windows 32bit, Linux 32bit, and 64bit).
3. Put the Win32's DLL or Linux's SO file in the pidgin's plug-ins sub-directory (for example: %APPDATA%\.purple\plugins or ~/.purple/plugins). For the portable version, it's at x:\PidginPortable\App\Pidgin\plugins.
4. Download the Unicode Emoji (smileys) for Pidgin.
5. Extract the ZIP content and move the Emoji-for-Pidgin folder to the purple/Pidgin's smileys sub-directory. For the portable version, it's at: x:\PidginPortable\Data\settings\.purple\smileys.
6. Download the latest version of WART EXE file—this doesn't need to be installed, it's a standalone program. Click the "download zip" or "view raw" to download the file.
7. Run WART-x.x.x.x.exe and register your cellphone number (make sure your phone can receive SMS in order to receive the verification code). Your optional password can be anything. The verification code SMS might arrive in your cellphone instantly or take a few minutes, so don't close the program yet, otherwise you'll have to wait for hours before you can re-register again.
8. After registration is verified and completed, you will receive a password (which looks like random letters) and your username which will be your full phone number. Make sure you save this password somewhere, you'll need it to login to WhatsApp, if you lost it you may have to re-register again. The phone number needs to include a country code but it doesn't need to be prefixed using plus (+) sign.
9. Run Pidgin and Enable the WhatsApp plug-in (optionally, you may also want to enable the built-in History plug-in), and Choose "Emoji for Pidgin for Smiley Theme" from preferences.
10. Add your new WhatsApp account (optionally, you may also want to set your nickname locally in the "Advanced" tab).

Note: Currently, Pidgin's WhatsApp plug-in is unable to retrieve nicknames automatically, so you'll need to edit each of your contact info and assign a nickname one by one (hopefully nicknames retrieval feature can be added soon). A more complete set of Unicode Emoji can be downloaded, but it could crash Pidgin.
Another alternative for using WhatsApp on Windows is a program called Wassapp, a non-official client for WhatsApp Messenger. This one can retrieve nicknames automatically but it has its own separate issues that you may want to research before you download it.

Pidgin's WhatsApp plugin

WhatsApp Registration

Add WhatsApp Account

Comparisons

Implementation	Pros	Cons
Emulator	Stable, full features (as it uses the official WhatsApp client).	Uses too many resources, a bit difficult to add contacts (unless you synchronize it with your real smartphone).
Pidgin	Easy to use, can be enhanced by additional plug-ins.	Doesn't have many features supported yet.
Wassapp	Easy to use, has more features than Pidgin's WhatsApp plug-in (at the time this review was written).	Has more bugs than Pidgin's WhatsApp plugin(at the time this review was written). Registration always fails, I can see chats in group but my chats sometimes don't get sent to everyone.