WhatsApp finally launches a native iPad app

WhatsApp has finally arrived on iPad — 16 years after it landed on iPhone. Here's how to get it, and what you need to use it.

WhatsApp, a wildly popular messaging app, has been available for iOS since 2009 and has even been on Mac since 2016. It was, however, conspicuously absent from iPad — until now.

Now, nearly sixteen years after its debut on iPhone, those who prefer to use their iPad as their primary device can use WhatsApp, too. You can head to the App Store to download it.

WhatsApp for iPad requires iPadOS 15.1 or later. Using it on iPhone similarly requires iOS 15.1 or later, and macOS users will need macOS Monterey 12.1.

New users should note that WhatsApp for iPad isn't a standalone app — it links to your existing WhatsApp account on your phone. This means that while you can send and receive messages independently, the iPad acts as a companion device, not a primary one.

WhatsApp is the world's most popular instant messaging platform. It boasts roughly 2 billion active monthly users worldwide — just under a quarter of the world's current population.

While Meta hasn't explained the delay, the lack of a native iPad app has long been a curious omission; doubly so given WhatsApp's massive user base and Apple's steady push toward making iPads more laptop-like.

In April, Meta blocked the use of Writing Tools, an Apple Intelligence feature, on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The company did not provide reasons behind the decision.

5 Comments

danox 12 Years · 3855 comments

About 1 month ago

No Thanks Meta….

2 Likes · 1 Dislike

spheric 10 Years · 2793 comments

…finally!

MplsP 9 Years · 4155 comments

danox said:

No Thanks Meta….

I generally agree - I avoid Facebook like the plague, using it only when absolutely necessary, along with the other apps that have been swallowed up by it. To top it off, WhatsApp is a total resource hog. The problem is, in many parts of the world WhatsApp is the default method of communicating, even if you have an iPhone with iMessage, so many people are kind of forced to use it.

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes

Alex_V 7 Years · 291 comments

spheric said:

…finally!

Rhetorical question: Why did Meta/Facebook take so long to release WhatsApp for iPad? Because they really don't care about your tablet computer. So, why did Facebook care so much to buy WhatsApp? For the answer to that, let’s go back to 2012 when Meta/Facebook bought Instagram to become the dominant player in social media. At this point they are feeling pretty happy with themselves raking in all that advertising money.
Meta/Facebook know everything that you do on their platforms, your network of friends and family, likes and dislikes, plus much of what you do around the web because of tracking with cookies. This is a pretty sizeable amount of information on each and everyone of us. Unprecedented in human history.

Meta/Facebook is an advertising company, about 97.5% of their $135B revenue (2023) is ‘advertising.’ But their biggest rival, Alphabet/Google (also an advertising company—$224B ‘ad revenue’ of $283B (2022)), rakes in even more money. How can that be? Well, Alphabet/Google has some distinct advantages: search advertising is huge; they own the world’s biggest TV station (yet they don't spend a cent on content); cloud services, etc all add up… But, mostly, Alphabet/Google has a phone in the hands of most people on Earth using their Android OS. Google knows what you are doing in the real world, beyond the internet: what clubs you belong to, where you shop, what you buy, and so forth… they get this data from the Android device, but also from advertising data aggregators who buy supermarket data etc.. because most transactions these days require a telephone number for data harvesting. What Google knows about us is seriously creepy, and, to be brutally honest, a profound threat to all of us.

In 2014
Meta/Facebook, (who already had a Messenger and a Phone app within Facebook) bought WhatsApp, a messenger and phone app. Why? because they didn't have their users’ telephone numbers. With WhatsApp, they have our telephone numbers, and they can now track our activities in the real world, just as Google does. And that is why the iPad app was irrelevant. Unlike Apple, who want us to communicate seamlessly with iPhone, iPad, Mac, using FaceTime, Messages, Mail etc, and therefore, they built this fantastic technology at the outset… Meta/Facebook aren't in it to provide us with great technology, they sell advertising, everything else is a cost. They bought WhatsApp because it is tied to the phone number in your phone. That's all they wanted, and iPads don't have phone numbers.

4 Likes · 0 Dislikes

bengt77 22 Years · 48 comments

Too little, too late. Earlier this year, I have closed my Facebook, Instagram and Threads accounts, and Messenger went down with them. On June 1, a deadline I set for myself, I'm closing my WhatsApp account, too. Then I will finally be truly free from Meta. It's been a long time coming. So no thanks, Meta.

Then again, for the people who will using WhatsApp, this is likely a very welcome development. So good for them.