WhatsApp has been one of the biggest supporters of Windows Phone, and even though Microsoft"s mobile efforts have been discontinued, the app still gets updates somewhat regularly on the platform. However, WhatsApp was never updated to a true UWP version, though a desktop version was made available on the Microsoft Store thanks to Project Centennial.
That could be set to change soon, however, as images spotted on Behance point to a universal Windows app being in the works, with Microsoft working closely with the Facebook-owned service to bring it over from the Silverlight version available for Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile. The page has been pulled from the website following a request for further information from Windows Central, but some of the concept images were saved, as you can see above.
Before it was removed, the page contained a paragraph which mentioned a partnership between the two companies to create a UWP version of WhatsApp with support for Windows 10 features such as inking and Fluent Design. It went on to say that the project had a "successful result" and that "we [presumably Microsoft] earned high praise from the WhatsApp team".
While the app would be "universal", images from the desktop version seem to indicate that, on such devices, the app would function similarly to WhatsApp desktop, only serving to access to the service through a connection with a mobile device. Those hoping for an independent app for Windows 10 will probably be disappointed by this.
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It is always worth noting that, even if concepts like these are real and do indeed come from Microsoft, there"s no guarantee that this app will ever see the light of day, so we"ll have to wait for either company to make an official announcement.
WhatsApp is arguably the most popular messaging service worldwide, so it wouldn"t be entirely surprising if Microsoft was trying to bring it to its Universal Windows Platform, especially with devices such as Andromeda seemingly coming soon. For now, however, the company declined to comment on the possibility.
Source: Windows Central