You can finally use WhatsApp on your iPad -- here's how to get it
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 is finally available for iPad
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.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
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.
Then again, for the people who will using WhatsApp, this is likely a very welcome development. So good for them.