In August 2023, WhatsApp launched an entirely new app for Mac computers. It was redesigned from the bottom up (the previous app was basically a web app in a window, while the new one is a native Mac app), and brought a few new features such as group video and audio calls.
For some reason, however, the app was only available from WhatsApp’s webpage; it wasn’t on Apple’s App Store for Mac, potentially confusing users.
Now, the new WhatsApp for Mac has finally been launched on the App Store as well. According to WhatsApp, the new app is available “globally,” and you can get it here.
I tried it out and it works as advertised; most importantly, and unlike the previous WhatsApp app for Macs, it works out of the box with my M1 Max MacBook Pro, without the need to download additional software to make it work.
Perhaps even more importantly, WhatsApp is also testing an iPad version of the app. WhatsApp, like Instagram (both are Meta properties), has never natively been available on the iPad, which is an inexplicable omission given how popular these apps are and how widespread Apple’s tablet is.
WhatsApp has been adding tons of new features lately across all platforms. A month ago, it started letting users with two SIM cards log into two WhatsApp accounts at once. A few days before that, WhatsApp also launched passkey logins on Android. The company also recently launched an HD setting for sending photos and videos, as well as an AI sticker generator.
