How to get WhatsApp on your iPad
Andrew Williams
WhatsApp is more powerful than you may realise.
WhatsApp is a popular messaging app worldwide, allowing us to easily send messages, pictures, videos, audio and more while sharing them with groups of friends, family members or colleagues.
Over the years, it has gained ever more features – some you may know, while others may have flown under the radar.
We’ve been using WhatsApp since its formative years more than a decade ago, when it was set up as an alternative to sending pricey text messages. We’ve followed its progress and numerous updates, allowing us to share our best tips and tricks with you.
WhatsApp is a popular messaging app worldwide, allowing us to easily send messages, pictures, videos, audio and more while sharing them with groups of friends, family members or colleagues.
Over the years, it has gained ever more features – some you may know, while others may have flown under the radar.
We’ve been using WhatsApp since its formative years more than a decade ago, when it was set up as an alternative to sending pricey text messages. We’ve followed its progress and numerous updates, allowing us to share our best tips and tricks with you.
WhatsApp isn’t just a messaging platform; you can also make voice and video calls on the app. This is particularly handy if you find yourself without a phone signal but do have access to wi-fi, as the app doesn’t require a traditional mobile phone connection to work.
It’s most useful when travelling aboard. If your hotel or accommodation comes with complementary wi-fi, you can call back home using WhatsApp and avoid those outrageous cost-per-minute charges.
Just one thing to bear in mind: whoever you’re calling also needs to have WhatsApp installed and set up on their phone.
Touchscreens have plenty of practical advantages, but tapping away on a digital keyboard isn’t for everyone – especially if there’s a lot you want to say. WhatsApp can make these long messages (and shorter ones) easier by not requiring you to type at all.
Just hold down the microphone icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and start speaking to dictate your message. It’s then sent as an audio file to the other person, who can listen to it within WhatsApp.
Want to find out what your friends and family think about a new purchase or where to go on holiday? Well, you can do so easily with WhatsApp’s handy poll feature. A relatively recent addition, polls offer a fun and practical way to engage with friends and family.
You can add up to 12 answer options per poll. Each member of the chat group (including you) selects one option. Everyone can then tap “view votes” under the poll to see how each person voted.
This is our favourite WhatsApp tip. The app isn’t officially available in app stores for tablets or computers, but you can still use your WhatsApp account on these devices.
You do so by linking your phone to the WhatsApp website on your tablet or computer. This is particularly useful if you find it fiddly to type long messages on your phone and would rather use a proper keyboard.
Read our guide on ‘How to get WhatsApp on iPad’ to find out more information (these tips work pretty well for laptop or desktop computers too).
If you’ve found yourself in a particularly active WhatsApp group where the volume of messages is driving your notifications into overdrive, you can quell the furore without the need to leave the chat completely.
Muting a chat stops the flow of notifications but keeps you in the group, allowing you to return at your leisure when you’re ready to catch up.
Have you ever accidentally posted a message in the wrong WhatsApp chat? We certainly have, but the good news is there’s an instant solution – delete it!
WhatsApp is not immune to spam messages and nuisance chats. If you start receiving messages from an unknown contact, you can block the account to prevent them messaging again.
Open the chat, tap their number at the top of the screen, then scroll to the bottom and tap “Block”.
If you find yourself messaging a contact where the contents are a little more, ahem, sensitive, you can opt to have all the messages in a particular chat delete themselves automatically.
Remember, enabling this deletes all messages after the selected time for both people in the chat, and both you and your contact can alter these settings at any time.
Occasionally you’ll open a WhatsApp chat to find a whole ream of messages you need to catch up on. It can be tricky to react to the older ones when the conversation has moved on.
With emoji reactions, you can provide quick, simple feedback to other people’s messages without the need to reply.
Long press on a message and a horizontal bar will pop up with six popular emojis to choose from. There’s also a “plus” icon, which takes you to the full suite of emojis so you can find the perfect response.
If a simple emoji reaction isn’t enough to respond to a particular message, you can also make it clear you’re commenting on a specific one by simply swiping across it from left to right.
Doing so will put a preview of the message above the text field where you type your response, and when you send your message it’ll be clear that it directly relates to the one you’ve highlighted.
WhatsApp allows you to share your location in a message, which can be really useful if you’re on your way to meet someone. It will allow them to see your whereabouts, so they can see when to expect you.
Your contact will then receive a message with a map indicating your live location, and they will be able to track your movement for the chosen duration.
It’s important to note that the feature relies on your device’s GPS, and both you and the recipient need to have an active internet connection for it to work. Additionally, you have the option to stop sharing your live location manually before the selected duration expires.
Ever lost track of that book recommendation or delicious recipe buried in a chat? All is not lost as you can easily search all your conversations for specific keywords, like “book” or “recipe,” to unearth the hidden gems you need.
You can also narrow down your search via type – from photos to links and videos – which is super useful if you’re looking for something specific.
Written by John McCann he/him
Published: Updated:
John McCann has been a technology journalist for more than a decade, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He’s interviewed CEOs from some of the world’s biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. During his time in journalism, John has written for TechRadar, T3, What Laptop, Windows 8 magazine and Gizmodo UK, and he’s appeared in the Evening Standard and Metro newspapers.