How to get WhatsApp on iPad

MacworldWhatsApp is an incredibly popular iPhone app, connecting more than a billion active members around the world every day. It lets you send messages to friends, or groups of friends, over Wi-Fi or 4G/5G and make savings on your phone bill. (Of course, you may end up paying for data if you go over your limit, so don’t go crazy!)Unfortunately, right now WhatsApp is only available for iPhone–there isn’t a version of the app for the iPad despite the fact that WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart (in January 2021) acknowledged in an interview that people had been asking for an iPad app for a long time. Cathcart revealed that much of the infrastructure to develop an iPad app is already in place, but he made no immediate promises. Then, in June 2021, both Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg and Cathcart confirmed to WaBetaInfo in an interview that multi-device support would be coming to Whatsapp “soon”. That “soon” was a long tine ago now, but we may not have much longer to wait. WhatsApp for iPad has been in beta since September 2023 and can be installed on the iPad via TestFlight if you are part of WhatsApp beta testing program. However it isn’t widely available. When we tried to get the Whatsapp for iPad beta in September 2024 we weren’t able to get into the beta program, but our colleagues at Macwelt were able to get onto the beta in January 2025 so have tried it out. There’s still no news about when a final version might be released to the public.If you aren’t part of the WhatsApp beta, don’t despair. In this tutorial, we show you how to use WhatsApp on the iPad using WhatsApp Web, and as our colleagues on Macwelt say, the beta is “reminiscent of the web or Mac version of Whatsapp”. WhatsApp Web connects to the WhatsApp account on your iPhone (or Android device) and forwards the messages on to your iPad, allowing you to send and receive messages, pictures and videos. It’s not quite native WhatsApp on the iPad, but it’s the next best thing.There is also a WhatsApp Desktop version if you want to use WhatsApp on your Mac. See: How to get WhatsApp on Mac for more information about that.WhatsApp for iPad release dateWhile right now there is no WhatsApp app on the iPad, it does look like there is one coming soon. As of September 2023, WhatsApp beta testers have been able to try out a WhatsApp for iPad beta. The beta looks like the most promising evidence yet that a version of Whatsapp will come to the iPad. That said, it’s now been in beta for more than a year and Whatsapp is still no closer to releasing the final version. It clearly isn’t high priority for the company. Why is Whatsapp for iPad still in beta? If the lack of WhatsApp on iPad is due to security issues, changes in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 that allow RCS Messaging support could pave the way for the iPad app. Support for Rich Communication Services (RCS) means that iPhone users can see if their message has been delivered to Android users and see typing indicators that indicate if they are responding. Apple claims the reason why RCS wasn’t previously on the iPhone was down to security issues. Whether this relates in any way to the apparent issues getting Whatsapp onto iPad remains to be seen. Either way, it doesn’t seem to be Whatsapp’s desire to keep Whatsapp off the iPad. Over the years there have been many indications that WhatsApp would eventually come to iPad, including Will Cathcart’s revelation above that people have been asking for one, and this tweet in August 2021, indicating that a team at Meta/Facebook-owned WhatsApp was working on a WhatsApp for iPad app.How to get WhatsApp on iPad using WhatsApp WebFoundryWhile there is not a WhatsApp app for iPad yet, there are ways to get your WhatsApp on your iPad.Follow these steps to get WhatsApp on an iPad:Open Safari on your iPad and head to web.whatsapp.com. Open WhatsApp on your iPhone. In Whatsapp tap on Settings.Tap on Linked Devices. Tap Link a Device. Use your iPhone to scan the QR code and pair with your iPhone. A web page should now load and display all your recent WhatsApp messages, along with any media or voice notes. Be aware that there are a few limitations when using WhatsApp this way. Most importantly, unlike when the service is used on a Mac or PC, notifications from web browsers aren’t supported on iOS/iPadOS. You won’t be notified of new messages.Apart from that and a few small bugs, however, the service is pretty easy to use and a great alternative for WhatsApp users keen to access the service on iPad.WhatsApp Web is a free and easy way to access the WhatsApp service on your iPad. Although you won’t get notifications (as you would when using the service on Mac or PC), it’s a great way to easily access your messages on a tablet.Moving from Android to iPhone and want to bring your WhatsApp messages with you? Read: How to move WhatsApp messages from Android to iPhone.How to install WhatsApp beta on iPadTo run the WhatsApp beta for iPad you need to use Apple’s TestFlight. If you are lucky it should be available here.Unfortunately, the Whatsapp for iPad beta is currently full and has been for some time, but slots have come up from time to time so it’s worth checking. For more help installing the WhatsApp for iPad beta read this.How to use Whatsapp beta on iPad Our German colleagues have tried out the beta of Whatsapp for iPad and had this to say: You can place a widget of Whatsapp on the home screen. You can see a numeric badge, display of two last chats and the display of four chats. It looks like there will be two more widget variants with the message preview, but these are not yet available.To link your own account you need to scan a QR code, displayed in the new app. After a short time, your own chats synchronize, so you can use the app on the iPad as well as on the iPhone.The Whatsapp on the iPad beta works on all iPads that can run iOS 12 and newer, so the requirements are quite low, even the owners of the older devices will benefit from it. For more information read: Whatsapp kommt endlich auf das iPad – so funktioniert es.