By Kavita Mistry 
With over a billion users worldwide, WhatsApp is the go-to platform for many people. With the recent announcement of a dedicated app for Apple Watch, it is available on almost all platforms, making it accessible on every device.
For me, the WhatsApp web is a lifesaver and the most reliable way to access WhatsApp on a PC. Despite having a native app for Mac, it is faster, more reliable, and easier to use. However, compared to the native apps, WhatsApp web has limitations that the company has been addressing lately.
However, because it’s web, you don’t need to wait until WhatsApp builds one; you can also build and add your own features using browser scripts. In this guide, you will learn about the seven most useful extensions that are already built for WhatsApp web. You can add additional features to WhatsApp even before WhatsApp adds them.
7 Free Extensions That Make WhatsApp Web More Powerful
Lock Your WhatsApp Chats and Blur Private Messages
One of the biggest downsides of using WhatsApp web is that it doesn’t support screen locks, so anyone who accesses your computer can easily read all your chats by simply visiting the website. Whether you use WhatsApp for business at work or for personal communication at home, leaving your browser open will allow anyone to easily read your WhatsApp messages.
This is where Privacy Extension for WhatsApp Web can come in handy. It adds two useful features to WhatsApp web. First, there is the ability to lock your WhatsApp web with a password or PIN, which prevents unauthorized access to your WhatsApp chats when you are away from your desk or even if someone accidentally accesses your PC.
Even if you forget to lock your computer, you can set a timer that automatically locks your WhatsApp when you are away.
Since PCs have larger screens compared to mobiles, all your messages are easily visible to people nearby, especially when you are working at a cafe or office with others present.
To protect your privacy, the extension offers auto-hide features that blur your message, media, profile picture, and more. You can view them by hovering your mouse to reveal them. It also allows customization, which enables you to choose what to hide. Currently, it supports user/group names, profile pictures, last message previews, all messages in chat, media previews, and text input.
It is free to use, and the developer claims they don’t collect any data for better privacy. If you found this extension useful, you can download it using the link:
Read Deleted Messages
WA Incognito brings all the useful privacy features to the web, while WhatsApp has already added most of these features to the web, like turning off read receipts, hiding online status and more; however, it also adds other useful features like the ability to hide typing indicator for others and the ability to view and restore deleted messages.
It also comes with a useful status saver that can help you automatically save WhatsApp statuses without needing a phone. Like any other extension, it is free to add and can be downloaded from the web store.
Back Up and Export All WhatsApp Contacts Easily
WhatsApp backup is a great option to back up your data; however, WhatsApp doesn’t automatically back up contact data. If you accidentally uninstall WhatsApp and switch to a new phone, you might accidentally lose some of your old contacts.
And in the worst case, if you haven’t saved their number, you might completely lose their access, even if you had conversations in the past on WhatsApp.
This is where the Export WhatsApp Contacts extension can be particularly helpful. The extension enables you to export and back up all WhatsApp contacts, including those from unknown numbers, into multiple formats, such as CSV, Excel, VCard, and JSON.
Since you are doing it manually, you don’t need to rely on WhatsApp backup solutions; you can securely store all your contacts on file outside the app and access them whenever needed. Unfortunately, there is no option to import if you lose access, but it’s better than losing access to those contacts completely.
The extension is from the developer who built Privacy Extension for WhatsApp, it is free to use and you can download it from Google extension store.
Translate Chats Without Leaving WhatsApp
The native message translation feature on WhatsApp is the quickest way to translate messages; however, it’s still not available on the web. Due to this, you need to rely on external tools like Google Translate and switch between tabs to read and send translated messages.
However, thanks to the translated extension for WhatsApp web, you can now quickly translate messages without needing to switch between apps. The best part is that it automatically translates all your messages to the required language and also translates your message to other languages as you type.
Not just that, you can also set individual language preferences for each chat, saving even more of your time. The extension is available for free. You can download it using the link:
Hide Unwanted Tabs Like Channels or Status
If you love customization, the WhatsApp Web Customizer can be a handy tool for you. It lets you set custom backgrounds for each chat, change font and much more.
However, it doesn’t work when I test it. The reason for including this extension is the useful toggle elements features that let you hide unwanted features on WhatsApp web.
For instance, if you don’t want to view channels, you can automatically hide the channels section from WhatsApp web. Not only that, but you can also hide statuses, as well as chat elements such as locked chats, archived chats, and so on.
Create Summaries of WhatsApp Messages
AI is very effective at summarizing text, and many people have already begun using it to summarize documents, emails, and other content. With this extension, you can create summaries for any WhatsApp chats.
The best part is that you can create summaries of specific chats between timelines. You can choose between specific dates, today or select the number of recent messages. The best part is that you can even continue your conversation using follow-up questions and get more insights.
Currently, I am unsure about the limits, and I would also recommend using it for personal chats since all the data will be sent to an AI model for processing. The best use case I found is for group chats and general work communications, where you need to quickly summarize what has just happened. The extension is free to download and can be installed from the Google Play Store.
Get Notifications Even When WhatsApp Tab Is Closed
If you primarily use WhatsApp desktop to manage all your conversations, some browsers’ aggressive battery-saving modes can cause them to close active tabs, including WhatsApp web, which may result in you missing important notifications. With WhatsApp notification extensions, you can receive notifications from WhatsApp, regardless of which tab you are on. Simply tap on the notification and start texting.
Upgrade Your WhatsApp Web Experience Today
So, those are the best WhatsApp web extensions you can use to add useful additional features to WhatsApp web that are not available by default. Initially, we considered fifteen extensions; however, with recent reports stating that vulnerable Chrome extensions are stealing data, I want to include only reliable extensions that are useful for the most popular platforms. As always, you can download these extensions directly from the Google Chrome Web Store and start using them. I hope you find this guide helpful. If you have any suggestions, let us know in the comments below.
Note: This post was originally written by Shubham Agarwal in November 2017 and completely rewritten by Ramesh Reddy in November 2025.