Because Who Needs Efficiency Anyway?
The WhatsApp Windows application is going to be completely revamped soon. The native app is going to be replaced by a version based upon WebView2.
That sounds rather uninteresting at first, but there’s a large but — actually, several.
The WebView2 application is insanely bad in resource usage, and that’s even an understatement. The native application only uses around 18 MB of memory when idle and not logged in.
The new WebView2 version? Around 300 MB, just to sit there and do absolutely nothing. That’s a sixteen-fold increase, for the privilege of opening a glorified browser tab.
If you don’t know the WebView2 framework, it is basically a complete browser encapsulated into a container with some additional diddles and doodles here and there.
So yes — the native application is replaced by a containerized shitty webapp.
GOOD JOB META! 👏
Once logged in, the native app consumes roughly 200 MB, while the new version climbs all the way up to 1.2 GB.
Yes, you read that correctly — six times more, to send the same message saying “ok”.
This isn’t modernization; it’s de-optimization at scale.
And if the application itself keeps working as-is — or better — that could still be overlooked. Performance trade-offs happen; that’s life.
But the new WebView2 app doesn’t just use more memory — it reacts slower, feels clunky, and sometimes fails to send notifications altogether.
Great!
So this upcoming “update” is actually a downgrade.
Meta basically fired the engineers who built a lean native client and replaced them with a wrapper that eats RAM for breakfast.
And here I am, trying to squeeze the last millisecond of performance out of my own code. Tweaking database queries, trimming loops, making small changes to my cluster to reduce SSD wear and save a few drive writes.
Basically trying to be a professional and responsible software developer who’s proud of what he builds.
Meanwhile, Meta will be rolling out this de-optimized version of WhatsApp to millions of computers — each one running a full browser instance to display a chat window.
And together, all of those “small inefficiencies” add up to a massive global energy drain.
Again — well done, Meta!
Or, put in other words…
SHAME ON YOU, META!
Get your shit together.
Re-hire the original native app developers if you have to —but do not roll out this disgrace of an “update.”
Brain out!