For those having issues with WhatsApp for Windows.
Learn how to fix WhatsApp Windows accessibility issues and use WhatsApp easily with NVDA. Step-by-step guide for blind and visually impaired users.
@jonathan859 @NightDrake It's definitely a bit of a clickbait, and some things are not necessarily as bad as described, but the web version is indeed a step back and if the beta works better, then that's a win, until it stops working, right? Temporary solutions are still solutions.
This is a typical example when a bit of kindness and compassion goes a long way. Do you seriously expect someone to crowd-source whether this works, instead of trying it out themselves and posting about it because they know that a lot of people have trouble with the web version?
Least you think what I said was not fact checked: Fact checked on the 11th of December, 2025, using the following sources:
The web version being mediocre, using personal findings based on social interaction: This morning someone just asked me how could they jump to the top of the message history, because there is simply no hotkey to do so in the web version by default. Unlabelled buttons, speed and other issues are also present.
Henderson, Theia, et al. “"A Blocklist is a Boundary": Tensions between Community Protection and Mutual Aid on Federated Social Networks.” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 9, no. 2, May 2025, pp. 1-30.
@jonathan859 @NightDrake No worries, it was meant to be a semi-serious comment, but I am not sure why this sounds wrong for you. The fact is that the beta works better right now than the web version, right? So regardless of how and when it is updated, accessibility-wise it's a better choice.
Should they fix the issues people are having, the web version could be a reasonably good client to migrate to, but given how Meta's handling betas and choosing to drop things just because they feel like it does not fill me with confidence that the future's bright. That's a different story though.
@jonathan859 The article does not mention that the beta is using Electron, it just says: It simply provides newer features and a different structure than the standard version.
If we suppose that the beta is updated more often than the web version, then even if it's using Electron, if they change anything in regards to accessibility, beta users would see it there first.
Now the question is, given that WhatsApp is known to roll out different versions to different regions and update them at different times, could have been a change somewhere that both the author of the article and @NightDrake could not have had access to? Or could it be that the native app was the beta while the desktop one was already updated to the web version, i.e. the beta is still behind in some regions?
I believe what you said, but there has to be a reason why it works for some people still and it doesn't for others. I don't think this is intentional and honestly the more I hear about this the more messy it becomes, mainly because of Meta. One step forward and two steps back, as they say.
Gina