The great majority of communication among Chabad shuls in Beit Shemesh is via Whatsapp. This pains me because I am of the school of thought that believes Whatsapp and Smartphones are on the balance bad news for Jews.
Of the many problems with Whatsapp, one of them is that you don't find the names of the groups in a web search. It's like a club that you don't know about. This is not the in spirit of Chabad, if you ask me, where we reach out to all Jews. Nevertheless that's how it's done in Beit Shemesh. If you write to Chassidus@outlook.com, I can write to the group administrators to invite you. Another problem with Whatsapp is that most groups are a mixture of men and women. That's not tznius. The Rebbe said to be modest in matters big and small, permanent and temporary. There is a group for men only and one for women only. Let me know and I'll get you an invitation to either of those. The third problem is that it's a stream. You have to read everything to get perhaps the parts you want, like notices of farbrengens. With email, you only open the ones you want to read. I created this blog to address the two latter problems. I'll see how long I can keep it up, but I'll post notice of many of the events here. You can subscribe to the posts so you get emailed.
If you don't have a smartphone, you can get whatsapp on your computer. I can show you how. You need a smartphone emulator. This makes your computer act like a smartphone. Many people use Blue Stacks, but that comes with all kinds of immodest icons and ads. A better choice is LDPlayer, an Android emulator. https://www.ldplayer.net/versions. The website homepage isn't so modest, but the download page is OK, as is the software once you load it.
As you see there are several versions to choose from. The one on the right is for older computers. The heavy duty ones are for people who want to play computer games. If you are only trying to run Whatsapp, you probably don't need those. But I am not sure about that.
How it looks on the computer once installed.
After you download LDPlayer, you go to the googlestore and download Whatsapp. I believe you need a google account for this. You don't have to have a google email address, just a google account. Then you list your phone number. It will try to text you. If you don't get text, it will then ask if you want to be called in order to register your phone.
There's also a Windows desktop software for Whatsapp, which is a bit more convenient to use as you don't have to start up the emulator. It has some functionality that the emulator one doesn't have, such as ability to reply to messages and to delete them. And then the emulator one has functionality that the Windows one doesn't have, like more easily adding names to your contact list. Each has its advantages. I use both. You have to link the Windows software to the Whatsapp account by taking a photo with your smartphone emulator (not your windows camera software) of one of those bar codes, that will appear on your windows web browser on the Whatsapp for windows website. https://web.whatsapp.com/ You can do that using a laptop camera or regular PC camera, but it must be launched using the smartphone emulator camera. It can be tricky. I can show you how.
Whatsapp on the computer via LDPlayer.
Whatsapp on the computer via Whatsapp for Windows
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