Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, has announced the launch of a standalone app for Wear OS smartwatches. The app, after months of beta testing, is finally available for stable version. It allows users to send and receive messages, make calls, and view notifications directly from their smartwatch.
This was announced by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg via his Instagram Channel. “You can now WhatsApp from your wrist with the new WhatsApp for Wear OS app,” he wrote. The WhatsApp app for Wear OS is compatible with smartwatches running Wear OS 3.0 or later. To use the app, users need to have the latest version of WhatsApp installed on their phone. Once the app is installed on the smartwatch, users can sign in using their phone number and password. Google first announced the arrival of WhatsApp for WearOS at its I/O conference in May. The standalone app was initially launched in beta version.
WhatsApp standalone app is also a competitive advantage for Wear OS over Apple Watch, which does not have a native WhatsApp app. Apple Watch users can only view and respond to incoming WhatsApp messages through notifications.
Google is improving Wear OS for a number of reasons including to compete with Apple Watch. The Apple Watch is the market leader in smartwatches and Google want to give Wear OS users a more competitive experience. Wear OS has been around for few years but it hasn’t been as popular as other smartwatch platforms. By improving the Wear OS, Google hopes to attract new users to the platform. Google at its AI-focussed announced several new features to Wear OS-running smartwatches. The company also announced Wear OS app from Spotify and Peloton.
Wear OS 4 is set to introduce a range of exciting updates later this year, enhancing accessibility features and providing users with an improved text-to-speech experience that is both faster and more reliable. Additionally, the update will bring backup and restore support for secure data transfer between watches.
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