The largest messaging app in the world has finally decided that the wearable with the largest use in the world should be directly supported.

In an announcement made on Tuesday, WhatsApp introduced a new Apple Watch app for the messaging platform. Joining the rest of the Apple ecosystem, the Apple Watch is now capable of handling messaging duties on Meta's service.

The new app can be used to see notifications for inbound calls, without needing to access the iPhone. At the same time, users can also read full WhatsApp messages on the compact wrist-worn screen.

These also include messages with images and stickers, which will be viewable from the Apple Watch screen. A chat history will also be viewable.

It's not just for receiving messages, as it will allow users to record and send voice messages from their wist. As usual for WhatsApp, it will still be a secure affair, with it continuing to use end-to-end encryption for privacy.

WhatsApp for Apple Watch requires an Apple Watch Series 4 at a minimum, running on watchOS 10 or later.

Another glacial launch

The launch of an Apple Watch app arrives almost out of the blue. At least when you consider the typically extended development time of apps in Apple's ecosystem within Meta's reach.

The Apple Watch app appears over 16 years after the initial app launch on the iPhone, in August 2009. It also arrives 11 years after Facebook bought the messaging platform itself.

The first Apple Watch came out in 2015, ten years ago.

With such massive resources available at Meta, you'd expect that creating the app for other platforms would be relatively trivial. But Meta has demonstrated that is certainly not the case for Apple's ecosystem.

It took until May 2025 for the iPad app to come out, despite the closeness of the iPhone and iPad ecosystems. Even then, the iPad app isn't standalone, as lit links to an existing WhatsApp account on the user's phone, and makes it more a companion app on iPadOS.

WhatsApp isn't alone in being part of the Meta stable of services that takes its sweet time making Apple apps. In September, after 15 years and almost 400 iOS updates, Instagram finally answered consumer demand and released a version of the app for iPad.

At this rate, we could probably expect a WhatsApp release on visionOS by 2041.