Finally, after 15 long years, WhatsApp arrives on iPad.

Meta announced the launch of a dedicated WhatsApp app for the iPad—a much requested feature. The new app, released worldwide on May 2025 through the Apple App Store, provides the same functionality as the iPhone version of WhatsApp.

With the new iPad app, users will be able to make video and voice calls with a maximum of 32 participants, share screen, and switch between the rear and front-facing cameras. Until now, using WhatsApp on an iPad required accessing the web version through a browser.

The app also enables users to to keep everything in sync across their iPhone, Mac, and other platforms. Personal messages, calls, and media are secure with WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption.

As a native iPad app, it takes full advantages of iPadOS multitasking features like Stage Manager, Split View, and Slide Over. These capabilities enable users to view multiple apps at the same time, sending messages while checking the web, or studying options for a trip in a group while on a call. On smartphone devices, users would normally need to switch from WhatsApp in order to accomplish these types of activities.

For years, Meta hadn't provided a clear answer as to why the world's most popular messaging platform was not brought to iPad—the best-selling tablet on the planet. WhatsApp was launched on the Apple App Store in 2009, six months before the release of the iPad. Meta (then Facebook) purchased WhatsApp in 2014 yet never released a native iPad app.

It wasn't due to lack of resources, but because of other factors that Meta never addressed. Consumers had long been wishing for WhatsApp to natively operate on the iPad. Although the web client for WhatsApp could be accessed through Apple's tablet, users couldn't use the front or back cameras or make fully featured video calls.

WhatsApp was always available on the iPhone, but that one couldn't be run on the iPad because Apple wouldn't let "telephony" applications run on the iPad. Now, with its own iPad app, WhatsApp is optimized for the larger iPad display, and users don't have to use the web-based version of the service anymore.

WhatsApp boasts over 3 billion monthly active users, with India being the biggest market with an estimated 535.8 million users.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/

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