A number of fortunate WhatsApp beta testers acquired a stunning deal with this week: the corporate seems to be testing a model of its iOS app that can also be optimized for the iPad. As first spotted by WABetaInfo, model 23.19.1.71 of WhatsApp’s TestFlight app contains the brand new iPad app as effectively.
From what we will see in screenshots, the iPad app works precisely such as you’d anticipate. You connect with it by scanning a QR code the identical approach you’d hyperlink your account to every other machine. You’ll see a listing of your conversations on the left and your present chat on the best. It’s just about the iOS app, however as an alternative of seeing one pane at a time, you see each. It nearly makes you marvel what took so lengthy, particularly when WhatsApp head Will Cathcart stated all the best way again in January of 2022 that “we’d love to do it.”
Meta, for some cause, has by no means appreciated constructing iPad apps. There’s nonetheless no iPad app for Instagram or Threads, and even the Fb app is only a poorly zoomed model of the iPhone app. Messenger is about the one Meta app app with a half-decent iPad expertise. However as WhatsApp turns into extra central to Meta’s social ecosystem — and because the firm tries to persuade companies to make use of WhatsApp for listings and buyer interactions — it is smart to carry the app to iPad as effectively.
Meta, for some cause, has by no means appreciated constructing iPad apps
It’s exhausting to name one of many planet’s hottest apps a secret weapon, however WhatsApp is actually among the many Meta merchandise with essentially the most potential. Meta appears to wish to flip it into extra of a private social network, letting folks join with one another and with the stuff they care about. (It additionally desperately needs to make more inroads with US users.) One of the best ways to do this is to be ubiquitous, so after a few years of cajoling and pleading from pill customers, WhatsApp may quickly be accessible in your massive(ger) display screen.