README

whatRust — Lightweight WhatsApp Web Desktop Client (Rust + Tauri)



Sponsorship goal: 10 monthly sponsors. That funds one fixed day every month for whatRust releases and bug fixes on Linux, Windows and macOS.


whatRust is a free, open-source, lightweight desktop client for WhatsApp Web that runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS — a lean, native alternative to the official Electron-based WhatsApp Desktop app, built with Rust and Tauri v2. It runs multiple WhatsApp accounts at once, each in its own window with a fully isolated login.

!Latest release
!License: MIT
!Platforms: Linux, Windows, macOS
!Built with Rust and Tauri v2
!GitHub stars

 Unofficial, independent project — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by WhatsApp or Meta. whatRust simply loads the official web.whatsapp.com interface in a native system webview.

 Also by the same author: Rusty Inbox, a fast, open-source Rust email client for Linux, Windows and macOS.

 Contents

- What is whatRust?
- Video and screenshots
- Why whatRust? A lean, native WhatsApp Desktop alternative
- Features
- Run multiple WhatsApp accounts
- Lock the app (optional)
- whatRust vs the official WhatsApp Desktop (Electron)
- Requirements
- Installation
- Getting started
- FAQ
- Limitations
- Contributing
- Disclaimer
- License

 What is whatRust?

whatRust is an open-source WhatsApp Web desktop client for Linux, Windows, and macOS. It wraps the official web.whatsapp.com in your operating system's native webview and adds the desktop conveniences a browser tab can't — a system tray, native notifications, persistent login, global shortcuts, and microphone/camera access for voice messages and calls.

It is an unofficial, open-source WhatsApp client and a practical WhatsApp Desktop alternative for people who want a fast, native app with minimal overhead instead of the heavier Electron-based official build. It is not affiliated with WhatsApp or Meta.

 Video and screenshots



Watch the 67-second video (also on the whatRust page). It is a real recording with a real account; the chats are hidden by whatRust's own privacy blur.

| | |
|---|---|
| !whatRust running WhatsApp Web with the privacy blur on | !Privacy blur panel: choose what gets blurred |
| WhatsApp Web with the privacy blur on | Privacy blur panel (Ctrl+Shift+P) |
| !Adding a second account in its own window | !Settings: appearance, shortcuts, updates |
| A second account, in its own window | Settings: appearance, shortcuts, updates |

 Why whatRust? A lean, native WhatsApp Desktop alternative

whatRust's native app shell is small — typically around 90 MB — because it reuses the webview that already ships with your OS instead of bundling its own browser engine the way Electron apps do. That gives it a much lighter baseline than the official Electron-based WhatsApp Desktop, which ships an entire Chromium runtime on top of the same WhatsApp Web page.

The official WhatsApp Desktop app is built on Electron, which packs an entire Chromium browser in

Top issues

Latest release

whatRust v0.6.14

Linux: attaching a video works again, and no longer eats all your memory.

On Linux, dropping a video onto a chat (or attaching it with the + button) could keep loading forever, never show the preview, and in the worst case use every gigabyte of memory until the desktop froze. A 35-second screen recording took the app to 21 GB within a minute.

whatRust tells WhatsApp Web it is Chrome on Linux, so WhatsApp runs its Chrome code on the system web engine (WebKitGTK), and the two differ in four places. All four are handled now (79):

- The video was read back damaged. The engine