Open whatsapp:// URI

Question

I've encountered some websites that have links starting with whatsapp:// but there's no handler for this link.

How do I open these links automatically?

Answer 1

Create a ~/.local/share/applications/whatsapp.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=WhatsApp
Exec=google-chrome-stable https://web.whatsapp.com/
Icon=whatsapp
Type=Application
Categories=Network;InstantMessaging;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/whatsapp;

For firefox, you can use Exec=firefox --new-window https://web.whatsapp.com/ instead.