[Update: Now Available] WhatsApp iPad App May Soon Go Out of Beta

WhatsApp

WhatsApp may soon officially launch on iPad, nearly two years after an app optimized for Apple’s tablets launched in beta. Yesterday, the WhatsApp team teased the upcoming release of this long-awaited app in two separate social media posts.

On Twitter/X, the WhatsApp team quoted a post asking about WhatsApp’s absence on iPad and just replied to it with the eyes emoji. It also did something similar with a post on Meta’s Threads app, and this is a not-so-subtle way to hint at the upcoming availability of WhatsApp on iPad.

 

It’s not exactly clear why it’s taken WhatsApp for iPad so much time to go out of beta. In the meantime, third-party developers have been filling the void with several unofficial WhatsApp web clients currently available on the iPad App Store. These apps all lack some features from the iPhone app, and they often come with in-app purchases. It’s surprising that the WhatsApp team let that happen for so long while the demand for an official iPad app was pretty clear.

While Facebook and Facebook Messenger have been available on the iPad for years, WhatsApp and Instagram, Meta’s two other social apps with over one billion monthly active users, have been notoriously slow to embrace Apple’s tablets. If the wait seems almost over for the iPad version of WhatsApp, the Instagram team is also reportedly working on an iPad app, though there’s no ETA for it yet.

Update 11:15 AM ET: It’s now official, WhatsApp for iPad is now available on the App Store. You can download it here.

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