The #1 point has been addressed too many times in the thread. Whatsapp gives different meanings to the status; Online means Whatsapp is the foreground application of the user. Offline means it is in the background, or maybe it is in the foreground, but not connected to the Internet. You can't stop Whatsapp from running in iPhones, Android or other Nokias. Whatsapp is ALWAYS running. Offline DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN the user is not connected to the Internet. It just means the application is NOT in the foreground: the user is not actively using it in that very precise moment. Just send messages to everybody like if it were SMS, you'll see they will become online when they read your message. I guess you haven't used Whatsapp in another device :P #2 Bells & Whistles like colors, icons, fonts an all that stuff won't be implemented until all Whatsapp functionality is done. The priority right now is to have a complete Whatsapp client. After that maybe the source code will be open, and you and everybody else will be welcomed to help customization and other stuff.