First announced at the Google I/O conference, WhatsApp has launched a new app for Wear OS 3 smartwatches. This app lets you start new conversations, reply to messages, and take calls, all from your wrist, without your smartphone needing to stay connected.
This novelty follows the release of the beta version of the application last May. You can reply to friends and family using your voice, emojis, quick replies, or text.
The application itself is not complicated. The app has exclusive features that make it easy and fun to use. Here are a few :
- Contacts: You can see a simple list of your recent contacts on the main page, along with options to go to settings or open the app on your phone
- Conversations: You can scroll through your old messages and reply to them using voicemail or the system keypad. You can also see if someone is typing or online
- Group chats: You can join or create group chats from your watch and see who’s in the conversation by scrolling to the end. You can also open the group chat on your phone if you want to send media or stickers.
To set up the app, enter an eight-digit code from your watch into the phone app. Then your chats will be synced across devices, with end-to-end encryption preserved thanks to multi-device capabilities.
You can check the number of unread messages using a circular complication and use “WhatsApp Contacts” to get to someone quickly. The “WhatsApp voice message” option allows you to start recording an audio message instantly.
Availablity
To use WhatsApp on your smart watch, download the latest version of WhatsApp for Android from the Google Play Store. WhatsApp said it plans to expand the app to more devices in the future.
It’s also a continuation of Google’s effort to support Wear OS’s third-party app ecosystem. Besides WhatsApp, the company told the I/O conference that Spotify is set to launch new tiles for its Wear OS app this year, while Peloton recently launched its own Wear OS app. In other words, everyone wins!
