After months of beta testing, WhatsApp for Mac just got a brand-new app, which is optimized for Apple Silicon Macs, helping improve responsiveness, battery drain, and efficiency.
The announcement was made by WhatsApp’s social media pages. Including a more consistent design with the iPhone version, this new app offers the basics of the main version, such as:
- All your chats (you can pin, archive, search for unread messages, etc.)
- Call someone (it’s possible to create a group chat link, call someone directly, and more)
- Check WhatsApp Status – its Stories-like feature
- Check Archived messages
- Open Settings
This app also supports sending and receiving messages even when the primary phone isn’t nearby. At this moment, it doesn’t seem users can check Channels or Communities – but these features should be available in upcoming updates.
What pains me the most is that even though WhatsApp spent the last ten months working on this all-new macOS version, the company still hasn’t released an iPad version.
Especially because this new app is made using Project Catalyst, this should mean that the developers could easily port the Mac app to the iPad. However, they still opt to offer the iPhone version, which is impractical to use on any Apple tablet.
Although WhatsApp has added tons of new features this year, it still lags behind its main competitor, Telegram. With Telegram, it is easier to connect with any device, check all your messages, and, most importantly, don’t lose a backup when migrating from one device to another.
That said, I still believe that WhatsApp for iPad is closer than ever to being released, and this new Mac app shows exactly what iPad users can expect once the company decides to release this software for Apple tablets.
BGR will keep bringing the latest news on WhatsApp’s upcoming features. You can find the new app for Mac here.
