handle links like whatsapp://send/...

[piec]

example: whatsapp://send/?phone=33699385720&text&type=phone_number&app_absent=0
In desktop file: MimeType=x-scheme-handler/whatsapp

[febryanvaldo]

Nice little enhancement, just moving from ZapZap, which is using almost 3GB of memory, this one is pretty light. Keep it up bro.

[gnolooo]

I was about to open a new issue regarding this.

Please note that I bypass the /usr/bin/elecwhat executable, since it defaults to electron37, and I use electron /usr/lib/elechwat/app.asar instead.

I've managed to get it partially working by adding MimeType=x-scheme-handler/whatsapp to the .desktop file and updating the Exec field from "$@" to %u. After associating the handler via xdg-settings set default-url-scheme-handler whatsapp elecwhat.desktop, here is the current behavior:

• If the app is not running: It starts correctly and displays the link's content.
• If the app is already running: It briefly shows the correct chat/content, but then the entire session restarts, sending the app back to the default state and losing the link context.

This is likely due to how electron or the application handle (or fail to handle) single-instance locking and passing arguments to an existing process.

Also, for testing purposes: only the whatsapp://send?phone=... protocol works. Standard web formats like https://web.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=... or https://wa.me/... are not recognized.

To reproduce via CLI:

# This works (with the restart issue if already open):
electron /usr/lib/elechwat/app.asar "whatsapp://send?phone=39123456789"

# These do nothing:
electron /usr/lib/elechwat/app.asar "https://web.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=39123456789"
electron /usr/lib/elechwat/app.asar "https://wa.me/39123456789"