WhatsApp is finally coming to the Apple Watch after nearly a decade
You can now read, reply, and send voice notes on WhatsApp without ever touching your phone.
After nearly a decade of waiting, Meta has finally given Apple Watch users what they've been asking for: a proper WhatsApp app.
Until now, the experience was frustratingly limited. You could only reply to WhatsApp messages through mirrored iPhone notifications, and that was about it. The irony isn’t lost on anyone. Even BlackBerry managed to build a BBM app for Apple Watch back in 2015, making Meta’s delay feel almost suspect.
The new standalone app packs features users have been requesting for years. You can read full messages without truncation, record and send voice notes, react with emojis, get call notifications showing who’s reaching out, and even view images and stickers right from your wrist. Meta says everything remains end-to-end encrypted, keeping chats private even on the watch. To use it, you’ll need an Apple Watch Series 4 or newer running watchOS 10 or later, which covers most modern models.
What makes this launch especially interesting is Meta’s long and awkward history with Apple’s ecosystem. The iPad version of WhatsApp only arrived in May 2025, and Instagram took 15 years and nearly 400 iOS updates before it finally landed on iPad in September. Whether Meta has struggled with Apple’s platforms or simply deprioritized them, it’s hard to say.
Meta bought WhatsApp in 2014 for just under $20 billion, and it’s since become one of the world’s most popular messaging apps with more than 35 million users. This new wrist-based experience isn’t just about convenience, but keeping people connected throughout their day, creating more subtle touchpoints for Meta’s expanding commerce and payment tools.
But early adopters have reported mixed results, with some crashes and syncing hiccups on older models like the first-generation Watch SE. Still, overall reactions have been positive. For many users, this finally feels like WhatsApp catching up to where it should have been years ago.
The takeaway
Meta’s long-overdue WhatsApp app for Apple Watch, coming now, could be a strategic move to stay visible in a world where wearables are becoming the next screen for everyday communication. It also closes a gap that has existed for a really long time and signals that Meta is finally taking Apple’s ecosystem seriously.
Loy Okezie
