WhatsApp is finally available on a bunch of smartwatches from Samsung and Google.
The messaging app just released its first official app for Wear OS, which lets you communicate using texts and audio from your wrist while on the go.
With WhatsApp on your smartwatch, you can start new conversations, reply to messages by typing or using your voice, take calls, mute chats, send quick replies and adjust settings.
It is puzzling to think that WhatsApp, used by some 2 billion people around the globe, has lacked an official smartwatch app until now. In its absence, users could only respond to messages they had been sent using predefined replies, or tell Google Assistant to send a text.
For now, the WhatsApp app is available on Wear OS3 watches. These currently include the Samsung Galaxy 5, the Google Pixel Watch, the Fossil Gen 6, Montblanc Summit 3 and Citizen CZ Smart Gen 2, among others.
Wear OS is Google’s smartwatch software platform that is available on devices from different brands. Announced in 2021, the latest update to the operating system was co-developed by Samsung and features a new Fitbit health app and refreshed versions of Google’s core apps, like Home and Weather.
WhatsApp began testing an app for Wear OS back in March, with Google revealing in May that the chat app would arrive this summer. Screenshots of the preview app revealed that connecting a Wear OS device to your WhatsApp account would involve typing an eight-digit code on your phone.
There’s also hope for Apple Watch users: WhatsApp parent company Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, says it is planning to bring WhatsApp to more devices.
The arrival of the WhatsApp Wear OS app follows Meta’s announcement in April that it was making it easier to use one WhatsApp account on multiple devices.
