With Wear OS 3, the landscape of Android smartwatches changed, and now more third-party developers are on the platform. And according to the latest report, WhatsApp, the instant messaging giant, has now released the official Wear OS app that will allow users to use the messaging app right from their Wear OS-powered smartwatches.
Thanks to the official availability of WhatsApp's Wear OS app, the Galaxy Watch 4, Galaxy Watch 5, and other Wear OS smartwatches can stay connected and offer users access to chats directly from their wrists. The WhatsApp Wear OS app currently shows a simple list of recent contacts, the Settings menu, and the ‘Open On Phone' option.
WhatsApp chats will be end-to-end encrypted on Wear OS smartwatches
When you open a chat, you can scroll through your previous conversations. You can reply to messages using voice messages or the system keyboard. Scrolling through group chats to the end will show you ‘People in this conversation' and another ‘Open On Phone.' To set up and use WhatsApp on your Wear OS device, you need to enter the 8-digit code from your watch on your phone to pair it up.
After that, WhatsApp will sync your chats from your phone to the Wear OS device, which will be end-to-end protected. WhatsApp's Wear OS app shows unread messages in a round complication. There are two Tiles for ‘WhatsApp Contacts' to jump to a person, while the ‘WhatsApp Voice Message' Tile lets you quickly start recording your message.
To get this WhatsApp Wear OS app, sign up for the beta program by clicking here. You have to ensure that the WhatsApp app on your Android phone and smartwatch is running v2.23.10.10+. Otherwise, you will face sign-up issues.