The Apple Watch boasts of a lot of amazing watchOS apps but unfortunately, WhatsApp isn’t one of them. That’s very surprising, because it makes a lot of sense to have a watchOS app for WhatsApp. Anyway, if you’re upset that you can’t use WhatsApp on your Apple Watch, now is the perfect time to switch away from it anyway. After all, the new WhatsApp privacy policy is overreaching and scary. So, here are 3 alternatives to WhatsApp for Apple Watch that you can consider using.
There are surprisingly few messaging apps that have put in the work towards making an Apple Watch app. That means your choices are limited if watchOS support is an absolute must for you. Signal, my new secure messaging app of choice, doesn’t have a watchOS app, which is sad. However, there are some others you can check out.
- Telegram
- Facebook Messenger
- Line
- Bonus: WatchChat 2
1. Telegram
One of the first apps that come to mind when you think about WhatsApp alternatives is definitely Telegram, and for good reason. The app offers all the features WhatsApp does, and adds a lot of extra features on top.
Plus, it also offers a fully fledged Apple Watch app so you can continue your conversations from your wrist. The Telegram app on watchOS shows you all your conversations. You can open any of them, send new messages or stickers, etc and basically keep in touch with your contacts.
If you’re a regular Facebook user (although I have to ask you why!?), you probably also use Facebook Messenger quite frequently. If not, you can consider using it as an alternative to WhatsApp because it does offer an Apple Watch app as well.
As you’d expect, you get to see all your conversations in the watchOS app, and you can long-press to start a new message as well. The only issue I see with this app (other than the obvious privacy implications of using Facebook Messenger) is that the watchOS app doesn’t show attachments that people share with you.
Lastly, if you have a lot of contacts that use Line messenger, you’ll be glad to know that it also offers an Apple Watch app. You get all the usual messaging features here as well, including support for images and stickers.
Download Line from the App Store (Free)
Changing messaging apps isn’t as simple as just downloading a different one. After all, your contacts need to be using those apps as well. So, if you’re unwilling to switch over from WhatsApp, you can check out WatchChat 2 for a sort of workaround to using WhatsApp on your Apple Watch.
Clearly, there aren’t a lot of messaging apps that are available on watchOS. However, as long as you’re willing to move away from WhatsApp, there are at least some alternatives you can consider.
