WhatsApp Web and Basilisk

[fipsy]

WhatsApp Web works well with Basilisk, but there is a problem: You have to re-authenticate yourself again and again with a QR code. WhatsApp does not seem to store the login permanently, but only temporarily for about one hour or so. Does anyone know the reason and can you do anything about it?

Cheers, Volker

[fipsy]

Wow, great! With Basilisk as of 2017.12.01, storing the WhatsApp credentials now works! You don't have to rescan the QR code all the time. I don't know if the bug has been fixed accidentally or deliberately, but thank you very much indeed!

Edit: Too soon pleased. A few minutes later, WhatsApp once again asked for the QR code. The problem therefore remains.

[back2themoon]

Don't use it personally (just once or twice) but I thought WhatsApp Web is supposed to work this way? I mean, you are supposed to have your smartphone next to you, but if the Wi-Fi connection is lost you need to re-authenticate with the QR code always.

[fipsy]

I've been using WhatsApp Web with "old" Firefox for more than 3 years on different computers and Operating Systems. The credentials have always been saved for many months. With Chrome it's the same. And it's independent from the smartphone connection. Only when communicating you need to be connected to the phone but not for maintaining credentials. You can watch the credentials in the WhatsApp App on the smartphone. Credentials created with Basilisk are shown as "Firefox" (I think because Basilisk authenticates itself as Firefox) but these credentials are always cleared after just a few hours whereas credentials created with Firefox or Chrome still persist.

It may be that this issue points to another problem that it may underlie. Therefore, it might perhaps make sense to investigate in this.

[Moonchild]

It may also simply be because WhatsApp doesn't store credentials for as long when you're not using one of the very few preferred browsers exactly.
It's a Google service, so most likely it will prefer Chrome.

[Sun42]

It may also simply be because WhatsApp doesn't store credentials for as long when you're not using one of the very few preferred browsers exactly. It's a Google service, so most likely it will prefer Chrome.

I wouldn't put this past Google, they have been very aggessive pushing Chrome into the market. I have had the same problem with the WhatsApp windows app, too, which might be due to the same "use Chrome or suffer" policy.

Alas, probably off-topic, but it might be helpful to some without too many WhatsApp-only contacts: Telegram is a lot less hassle and has an addon on amo: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... m-desktop/

[fipsy]

It may also simply be because WhatsApp doesn't store credentials for as long when you're not using one of the very few preferred browsers exactly. It's a Google service, so most likely it will prefer Chrome.

But WhatsApp belongs to Facebook. As far as I know there are no connections between Google and Facebook. And there have never been any problems with Firefox itself. It probably has to do with some differences between Firefox and Basilisk.

Alas, probably off-topic, but it might be helpful to some without too many WhatsApp-only contacts: Telegram is a lot less hassle and has an addon on amo:

If more contacts would use a certain, different messenger, that would be no problem. But over 90% of my contacts only use WhatsApp. And the others also use one of the many different messengers additionally. There is not only telegram. Threema is also often used. No one can install 5 or 6 Messenger to cover everything.