There’s Finally a WhatsApp App on iPad Now. Yay?

Poor iPadOS. Spun off of the iPhone-centric iOS operating system when Apple finally realized that a good phone app isn’t necessarily a good tablet app, iPadOS seems to get everything last in the hierarchy of iOS, macOS, iPadOS. Even the Apple Watch’s watchOS seems to get more lovin’ from Silicon Valley.

So imagine my surprise when today WhatsApp announced that it’d finally delivered on the long-promised WhatsApp app for iPad. Now you don’t have to awkwardly log into your iPad’s web browser to continue chats that’d otherwise work within apps on your MacBook and iPhone.

new app, familiar capabilities

There’s nothing hugely revolutionary in the new app created especially for the iPad. As with the iOS version of the WhatsApp app, you can connect up to 32 people on a video or audio call, share your screen, and swap between the iPad’s rear-facing and front-facing cameras.

Meta (owner of WhatsApp) has tinkered with it a bit to take advantage of the iPad’s greater screen real estate, though, as well as with peripherals commonly connected to an iPad but not an iPhone. Compatibility with the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil are built into the new app.

“Take advantage of iPadOS multitasking features such as Stage Manager, Split View, and Slide Over to view multiple apps at once, so you can send messages while browsing the web, or research options for a group trip while on a call together,” WhatsApp said in an announcement on Tuesday, May 27.

WhatsApp didn’t reinvent the wheel. They merely polished it and fitted it more carefully to a new vehicle. But they didn’t have to reinvent it.

Too many times I’d be hopping between my MacBook, iPad, and iPhone—a trifecta combination common to a lot of people neck-deep in the Apple ecosystem—and I’d hear a WhatsApp notification on my phone. Then I’d have to toss down my iPad, because there wasn’t a convenient way to respond from it.

Now the last missing puzzle piece is here. A few tweaks was all it needed. Better late than never.