The Apple Watch is set to receive a significant upgrade. A WhatsApp companion application for the Apple Watch is currently undergoing beta testing, allowing Apple users to monitor, view, and reply to messages and media on just their Apple Watch, even without waiting for the notification pop-up.
This companion app even allows for the use of emojis and voice notes. This generates a new level of convenience for Apple Watch users, letting them send messages quite literally at the flick of a wrist.
Although this sounds like a sweet deal, there is something to keep in mind. As this is still a companion app, there is still a need to have an iPhone with the WhatsApp app installed for this. The watch app just works alongside it, so don’t expect to ditch your phone entirely.
It’s also still in beta at the moment and we don’t know when it’s releasing. Regardless, the testing is a step forward in the right direction, with the previous method of using the WhatsApp application on the Apple Watch being extremely restrictive, with it limiting users from only replying through notifications, thus requiring notifications to be on both the Apple Watch and your iPhone.
Currently, beta testing for the new companion app is available through TestFlight after downloading the beta version 25.32.10.71 of the WhatsApp app for iOS. The official release, however, is still unknown, with no news from the WhatsApp developers.
While we’re still waiting for the official upgrade, check out our review of the Apple Watch Ultra 3 or find out how you can currently use WhatsApp on Apple Watch with this handy guide.
