We were very pleased to see an official WhatsApp app arrive for the Apple Watch earlier this week, but it's not working as intended on certain models – and the Meta team is hard at work trying to fix the problems.
When we asked Meta about the reported issues, we were told that the WhatsApp product team "is aware of this" and is currently "working quickly to get this resolved soon", so it sounds as though a solution isn't too far off.
As far as we can tell, the crashes are happening on older Apple Watch models running watchOS 10 rather than the latest software. That includes the Apple Watch 4 and Apple Watch 5 (both launched in 2019), and the first-gen Apple Watch SE (launched in 2020).
According to WhatsApp's official announcement, the app is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 4 or later, and needs watchOS 10 or later to run, so it seems it's the oldest models that meet that criteria that are having issues.
'Opens then closes immediately'
- The new WhatsApp app is crashing on some devices
- Older models running watchOS 10 seem to be affected
- Meta says the WhatsApp team is now working on a fix
There are plenty of reports on Reddit that detail the problems with WhatsApp and certain Apple Watches, and it seems that if there is an issue, the app just "opens then closes immediately" as per posts from users.
What's more, there doesn't seem to be a solution at the moment – there's no workaround you can try to get everything working properly. Uninstalling and reinstalling the WhatsApp app on the watch doesn't have any effect, for example.
As noted above, watches that aren't running the latest watchOS 11 or watchOS 26 are apparently the ones having trouble. Some other users are reporting a "buggy" experience, but managing to get the app up and running on their wrists.
When it does work as intended, the app should give you call notifications, full messages, voice messages, access to message reactions, chat history, and the ability to see images and stickers on your Apple Watch screen.
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