After what feels like a decade of excuses, WhatsApp has finally delivered a native iPad app. Yes, in 2025. Welcome to the party.
The app is now live on the App Store and does all the stuff you’d expect it to have done in, say, 2018. Group video and audio calls? Check. Screen sharing? Yep. Split View, Slide Over and Stage Manager multitasking? Also yes. It even syncs with your iPhone and Mac, just like you’d hope any modern messaging app would.
Technically, the iPad version runs on WhatsApp’s multi-device architecture, which means you don’t need your phone nearby, a long-time headache for WhatsApp users stuck in a mobile-first purgatory. Everything’s end-to-end encrypted, with extras like chat lock if you’re sharing your iPad or just feeling extra private.
The real news here isn’t that the app exists. It’s that WhatsApp has finally stopped treating iPad users like an afterthought. With 200 million iPads out in the world, it’s hard to justify why it took Meta this long to get here, especially when competitors like Telegram, Signal, and, well, basically everyone else, have had this sorted for years.
Still, it’s here now, and it’s good. Whether you’re tapping away on a Magic Keyboard or casually screen sharing over a group call, WhatsApp for iPad finally makes the app feel like a proper part of the Apple ecosystem. No stretched-out iPhone UI, no janky workarounds, no beta-only nonsense.