WhatsApp now has a dedicated app for Apple Watch users.

The new update adds voice messages, full chat history, and other features we've been missing for years.

For quite some time, the WhatsApp experience on Apple Watch has been underwhelming, offering only simple notifications. Users could receive alerts and view the beginning of messages, but further interaction required an iPhone.

Meta has now released a new, native watchOS app, representing a significant upgrade rather than a minor update, intending to provide a genuinely useful experience on the Apple Watch.

The updated app allows users to:

Read complete messages

Record and send voice messages

See caller ID for call notifications

Respond with emojis

View images and stickers more clearly

Scroll through more chat history

To use the new app, users need an Apple Watch Series 4 or later, running watchOS 10 or newer.

This update provides a substantial improvement, especially for the many individuals outside the U.S. who rely on WhatsApp as their main messaging platform, as the Apple Watch experience has felt restricted to iMessage until now.

Although Telegram, a main competitor, has long offered a native watch app with features like browsing chats, sending voice notes, and viewing stickers, this new WhatsApp app brings feature parity to its competitor.

Nevertheless, this addition enhances the Apple Watch, particularly for quickly responding to messages without needing an iPhone.

This update addresses a key inconvenience, especially for those who communicate internationally and prefer using voice messages, as it enables sending them directly from the Apple Watch.