WhatsApp may be close to launching its iPad App after a long, long wait

Image credit: Pixabay (Image credit: Image credit: Pixabay)

It looks like WhatsApp users will finally get what so many of us have been asking for, as beta testers have had a sneak peek at an iPadOS app version of the instant messaging app. Hopefully, this means we’ll be getting an iPad app version of WhatsApp very soon.

Screenshots from WABetaInfo show that the app looks just as it does on your phone, just adapted to the iPad’s larger screen. It looks like you’d use the same QR-scanning feature to connect your account to the app, and have the same list of contacts on the left and your current chat on the right as you would when you use WhatsApp Web.

You do have to wonder why it’s taken so long for the iPadOS app to come to fruition considering how popular WhatsApp is, and the fact that we already have Facebook Messenger and Instagram on the iPad.

Screenshot from beta — (Image credit: wabetainfo)

Why does Meta hate iPads?

The Verge notes that Meta has never been keen on building iPad apps, particularly apps optimized for iPads and not just quickly ported over. Even the Instagram app on the iPad is just a zoomed-out version of Instagram for smartphones that’s barely usable. We've yet to have a Threads app for iPads either, and if Meta is only getting to WhatsApp on iPadOS now, who knows when we might see Threads come to our Apple tablets?

With WhatsApp being one of the most popular apps on the planet, the idea of an iPad app is pretty exciting, and will definitely be a big hit for Meta if it passes the beta stage. Plus, as Meta continues to push users to engage with WhatsApp Business and introduces WhatsApp channels, it will be foolish not to bring its app to other devices.

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Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).