yowsup is a python library that enables building applications that can communicate with WhatsApp users. The project started as the protocol engine behind Wazapp for Meego and OpenWA for BB10. Now as a standalone library it can be used to power any custom WhatsApp client.

yowsup-cli-2.0 will focus on the development of yowsup-cli in Linux (specifically Ubuntu) environment. Other installation methods listed in this document are in legacy mode.

updated: 14-07-23
Changes:
- Added /yowsup-cli-2.0/yowsup/env/env_scrape.py
  > Scrape and download latest WhatsApp.apk
- Added /yowusup-cli-2.0/yowsup/env/WAmaintenance.sh
  > Run both env_scrape.py and env_utilities.py
  > Keep WhatsApp updated
  > Run a cronjob to always keep your WhatsApp updated

updated: 15-05-23
Changes:
- Added /yowsup-cli-2.0/yowsup/env/env_utilities.py
  > Script to retrieve latest MD5 and Version values 

updated: 02-05-2023
yowsup version: 3.3.0
yowsup-cli version: 3.2.1
requires:
- python>=2.7,<=3.7
- consonance==0.1.5
- python-axolotl==0.2.2
- protobuf>=3.6.0
- six==1.10
uses:
 - argparse [yowsup-cli]
 - readline [yowsup-cli]
 - pillow [send images]
 - tqdm [mediasink demo]
 - requests [mediasink demo]

See also

During maintenance of yowsup, several projects have been spawned in order to support different features that get introduced by WhatsApp. Some of those features are not necessarily exclusive to WhatsApp and therefore it only made sense to maintain some parts as standalone projects:

• python-axolotl: Python port of libsignal-protocol-java, providing E2E encryption
• consonance: WhatsApp's handshake implementation using Noise Protocol
• dissononce: A python implementation for Noise Protocol Framework

Quickstart

• Installation
• yowsup's architecture
• Create a sample app
• yowsup-cli

Installation (Ensure you are root user before proceeding below)

Prepare system for yowsup-cli-2.0

Ensure operating system is up-to-date:

[APT]
apt-get update ; apt upgrade -y
apt install python3 -y
apt install python-pip -y

[YUM]
yum check-update ; yum update -y
yum install python3 -y
yum install python3-pip -y

Install necessary packages:

[APT]
apt-get install python3-dateutil python3-setuptools python3-dev libevent-dev ncurses-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev python3-lxml

[YUM]
yum install python3-dateutil python3-setuptools python3-devel libevent-devel ncurses-devel libxml2-devel libxslt-devel python3-lxml

Install all Python dependencies, or pip:

pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install pyaxmlparser yowsup

Linux

You need to have installed Python headers (probably from python-dev package) and ncurses-dev, then run

python3 setup.py install

WhatsApp Maintenance

Change directory to env:

cd yowsup/env

Retrieve latest WhatsApp Package Installer:

wget "<WhatsApp_Package_Installer_Link>" -O WhatsApp.apk

Check latest WhatsApp Version:

python3 env_utilities.py WhatsApp.apk

FreeBSD (*BSD)

You need to have installed: py27-pip-7.1.2(+), py27-sqlite3-2.7.11_7(+), then run

pip install yowsup

Mac OS

python setup.py install

Administrators privileges might be required, if so then run with 'sudo'

Windows

• Install mingw compiler
• Add mingw to your PATH
• In PYTHONPATH\Lib\distutils create a file called distutils.cfg and add these lines:

[build]
compiler=mingw32

• Install gcc: mingw-get.exe install gcc
• Install zlib
• python setup.py install

License:

As of January 1, 2015 yowsup is licensed under the GPLv3+: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html.