Zap Fast is a lightweight WhatsApp client for Linux, macOS, and Windows, written in Rust with egui and fastframe, the framework behind a family of native desktop apps. It links to your phone as a companion device through whatsapp-rust and has no browser engine. In the project's Linux test, it opens in under a second and uses about 200 MB of idle RAM, compared with 1.13 GB for WhatsApp Web. The interface is available in English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
The app supports formatted text, replies, edits, reactions, forwards, pictures, files, stickers, GIFs, polls, and voice messages. Voice messages, videos, round video messages, GIFs, and animated stickers play in place. Chats are kept in an encrypted archive on the computer, older messages are fetched from the phone as you scroll, and history can be exported as text or a ZIP with attachments. Several WhatsApp numbers can be linked and switched between in one window.
Users can choose light, dark, system, or custom themes, and locked chats can be hidden behind a code or the whole window behind an app lock. Zap Fast says nothing goes to a server of its own. Installation options include Homebrew for macOS, the AUR package for Arch Linux, and Windows and other Linux builds from the download page.
To link a phone, users scan a QR code from WhatsApp's Linked devices menu or enter an eight-character code. Recent chats arrive from the phone, and the link survives restarts. Full guides are available at zapfast.rocks.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing