Meta’s popular instant messaging platform WhatsApp can only be used on the iPhone and on Macs through its desktop app or through a web browser. There have been rumors about WhatsApp coming to the iPad but that has yet to happen. In a recent interview, WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart said that people have been asking for an iPad app for a long time and that the company would “love to do it.”
WhatsApp would love to release an iPad app, says company exec
Speaking to The Verge, Cathcart said “People have wanted an iPad app for a long time. We’d love to do it.” He also hinted that the company has been working on the underlying structure for a tablet version of the app since it introduced support for multiple devices in 2021.
Historically, WhatsApp has not been able to sync chats across devices over the internet like other platforms of the way it encrypts messages. Notably, if your smartphone did not have access to the internet, the desktop version would not work. However, the beta version of multi-device support lets users sync their account on up to four devices using mapping device identifiers to an account key on WhatsApp’s servers.
“We did a lot of work on the technology for supporting multiple devices. Our web and our desktop apps now have that. If I have multi-device on, I can turn my phone off or lose my network connection and still get messages on my desktop. That would be really important for a tablet app, to be able to use the app even if your phone isn’t on. So the underlying technology is there.”
WhatsApp is currently available on the iPhone, the desktop, and the web. The company is still testing multi-device support that allows users to connect four devices to their WhatsApp account without connecting to an iPhone. Several months ago, it was revealed that the company was testing the functionality on iPad as well so it is possible the functionality could allow a tablet version to exist.
Read more:
- WhatsApp for iOS adds new voice recording feature, gains support for iOS 15 Focus mode
- WhatsApp to add two-step verification to desktop app and web version
- WhatsApp to introduce the ability to migrate chat history from Android to iOS
- WhatsApp for Desktop now lets users pause and resume voice recordings, feature currently in beta
- WhatsApp released new ‘global voice note player’ on iOS beta
