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WhatsApp on iPad/MacBook

I am aware that previously iPad did not support WhatsApp, I don’t know the reason behind this restriction 🤷‍♂️ But today as iPad is becoming more & more powerful, I wanted to ask does it have same restriction even today? My second query is whether MacBook supports WhatsApp?

Posted on Jul 26, 2019 6:16 AM

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Posted on Jul 30, 2019 8:34 AM

You can use the Web version of Whatsapp just like you can on a Mac.


Just open the https://web.whatsapp.com website and follow the instructions there. You may need to hold down on the refresh icon in Safari, and request the desktop site, to get the proper Web based Whatsapp client.


Facebook, the owner of Whatsapp has simply chosen not to release an actual app for iPad. Probably to avoid any confusion by people thinking it can work on its own, when it actually can't, and would still require an smart phone that has it installed and set up anyway.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 30, 2019 8:34 AM in response to San_jay

You can use the Web version of Whatsapp just like you can on a Mac.


Just open the https://web.whatsapp.com website and follow the instructions there. You may need to hold down on the refresh icon in Safari, and request the desktop site, to get the proper Web based Whatsapp client.


Facebook, the owner of Whatsapp has simply chosen not to release an actual app for iPad. Probably to avoid any confusion by people thinking it can work on its own, when it actually can't, and would still require an smart phone that has it installed and set up anyway.

Jul 26, 2019 6:27 AM in response to San_jay

It's not that iPad doesn't support WhatsApp. It's that the developer (Facebook) who owns WhatsApp doesn't make an iPad compatible version. The most likely reason it's not supported is WhatsApp uses cellular services, which iPad and Mac don't have as they are not cell phones and don't have cellular radios, like a cell phone.


There are alternatives you might try, like Wzpad for iPad: https://wzpad.com/

Jul 30, 2019 3:44 PM in response to San_jay

San_jay wrote:

But I was wondering what’s the reason WhatsApp does not support iPad as desktop version the same way it supports MacBook as desktop version. I mean people who use WhatsApp as most used app will be forced to choose MacBook although other features in iPad maybe favourable to them.

I have no idea why they don’t support iPads. They never have despite years and years of people asking that same question here. You would have to ask WhatsApp that question as only they’d have an answer for you.


The desktop app’s for MacOS or Windows won’t run in iOS though if that’s what you were wondering. And to use the Windows or MacOS versions, you still need a cellular telephone to use them - they are not standalone apps and you cannot create a WhatsApp account from any computer. Accounts can only be created and active from a compatible cellular telephone, and that cellular telephone must be present to link the desktop app to your account.


So no matter how you cut it, WhatsApp ultimately only works for and requires a cellular telephone.

WhatsApp on iPad/MacBook

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