Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- WhatsApp is arriving on Wear OS smartwatches starting today.
- For now, the app is only available to smartwatches with Wear OS 3.
- The inclusion of WhatsApp smartwatch app was teased at Google I/O.
WhatsApp has been available as a native app on Wear OS smartwatches since May 2023. However, it was only available as a beta for registered beta testers. Now the stable version of the instant messaging and voice-over-IP app is officially rolling out to smartwatches starting today.
Back in May, a WhatsApp app for Wear OS was teased at Google I/O, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced the smartwatch app in a Facebook post. Nearly two months later, the stable version of the app is coming to Wear OS 3. Unfortunately, it appears that the app won’t be available to older Wear OS versions.
Like the smartphone version of WhatsApp, users should be able to start conversations, reply to messages, and take calls. You’ll also be able to respond with voice messages, emoji, regular text, and quick replies.
While the smartphone version of the app should be able to do everything the smartphone app does, our testing of the app revealed that the developers included some extras. One of those extras was complication support, which shows the app’s icon as well as the number of unread chats and creates a launch shortcut on the watch face. The other addition was tile support, allowing you to add two new tiles; one shows your last five chats and the other lets you send voice messages to your last three chats.
The app should also come to Wear OS 4 when it finally launches. Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic next week during its Unpacked event. It’s believed that Samsung’s new smartwatches could be the first smartwatches graced by Wear OS 4. The sequel to Google’s Pixel Watch — which leaks suggest should launch along with the Pixel 8 series in October — is also expected to don Wear OS 4.