WhatsApp for iPad: What you need to know
WhatsApp said the iPad app was one of its most requested features.
WhatsApp is now available for iPad. Picture: Meta
After more than 15 years, Meta has finally announced a dedicated iPad app for WhatsApp.
Available to download via the App Store, WhatsApp for iPad supports many of the same features as its iPhone counterpart.
The app also allows users to join audio and video calls with up to 32 people, use both the rear and front device cameras, and share their screen with other call participants.
'Biggest request'
WhatsApp said the iPad app was one of its most requested features.
'We've made WhatsApp for iPad ideal for multitasking, so you can get more done. Take advantage of iPadOS multitasking features such as Stage Manager, Split View, and Slide Over to view multiple apps at once, so you can send messages while browsing the web, or research options for a group trip while on a call together'.
WhatsApp also works with the iPad's Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil.
If you wanted to use WhatsApp on a larger screen before the iPad app, you had to either run the web version in your iPad's browser or use the desktop apps for Mac or PC.
ALSO READ: Time to upgrade: These are some of the smartphones that no longer support WhatsApp
Instagram
On Monday, WhatsApp's account on X teased the app's arrival with a not-so-subtle eyes emoji, though there was no hint it would launch so soon.
Meta is also rumoured to be developing an Instagram app for iPad that's optimised for the larger display, but the company hasn't dropped any hints about that in the way it did for WhatsApp.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said WhatsApp has more than three billion monthly active users.
It's not known what percentage of those users log in to the app from an iPad.
New look
Last year, WhatsApp released a refreshed design for both iOS and Android apps for a more streamlined look, while also introducing a new 'darker dark mode'.
Users of the social media platform noticed a new colour palette and other changes that make the experience of using WhatsApp on both platforms more seamless.
The messaging app introduced a new, consistent green palette within the app for a unified experience.
ALSO READ: WATCH: Meta releases new AI assistant on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Maverick
16 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Crossed Wires: Artificial intelligence slouches towards the advertising industry
Quite suddenly, AI is shredding long-established norms everywhere in this vaunted industry. One of the most startling developments has been the release of Meta's Veo 3, a text-to-video application released a few weeks ago, which has to be seen to be believed. And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? — WB Yeats, The Second Coming Perhaps it's a bit of an overkill to link AI's looming encroachment on the advertising industry to Yeats' darkly foreboding poem. Yet, having just returned from Cannes, where the global ad industry's biggest event, the Golden Lions, is held, it was clear that AI was hanging like a shadow — not visible to everyone perhaps, but obvious at least to those who are certain of the disruption to come. They were the ones who looked like deer caught in the headlights, standing startled and paralysed amid the glitz and glamour of the event. I was there to present a paper titled 'AI in Advertising: Governance, Regulation and Other Troubles' on behalf of the Icas (International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation) Global Think Tank. I was not the only one talking about AI in Cannes; the conversations and presentations were everywhere. One disquieting question didn't have to be articulated: has the advertising industry arrived at its Fleet Street moment? The question refers to the collapse of the printed newspaper business in the mid-'90s, catalysed by digitisation and the internet, which brutally upended an industry that had remained largely unchanged for more than a century. There were many casualties and only a few survivors in its wake — which is what is likely to happen in advertising. Quite suddenly, AI is shredding long-established norms everywhere in this vaunted industry. One of the most startling developments has been the release of Meta's Veo 3, a text-to-video application released a few weeks ago, which has to be seen to be believed (just go to YouTube and search for Veo 3; here is but one example). The quality of the video and the AI 'actors' and locations is indistinguishable from those shot with cameras and populated by human actors and extras. With Veo 3, the user describes the scene they want to see, gives the actors a 'script' and 'directions', and Veo 3 does the rest. (Veo 3 is not the only text-to-video app, just the latest.) Professional-level text-to-video is a brand-new strand of Generative AI. There are, of course, grumbles. It has limitations. Currently, Veo 3 can only render eight seconds of video. Some visual elements are difficult to control or 'not quite right'. It is expensive. Expensive? Consider this: A marketing director will brief an agency to deliver a 30-second video commercial. The agency then refines the brief, perhaps with a rough storyboard and brand/campaign context, and passes it on to a few video production companies. One of those companies comes up with a creative approach and pitches a treatment: three days of shooting, four locations, three actors, 10 extras, two weeks of post-production. Budget? $1.5-million. Or the agency can use Veo 3 in the hands of a single tech-savvy director and perhaps a good human Veo 3 expert. Cost? $150,000, with 10 differently flavoured commercials rendered for presentation to the client within two weeks. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where this is going. It signals the end of video production companies, except for live events or productions with celebrity actors. One estimate I heard at the conference predicted 3,000 production company bankruptcies globally within two years. And it may mean the end of some ad agencies if some corporations decide to plough the money they're saving in production costs into forming new in-house agencies. Dystopian scenario This scenario isn't even the worst of it. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently spelt out the following audacious and dystopian scenario: 'We're going to get to a point where you're a business, you come to us, you tell us what your objective is, you connect to your bank account, you don't need any creative, you don't need any targeting demographic, you don't need any measurement, except to be able to read the results that we spit out. I think that's going to be huge, I think it is a redefinition of the category of advertising.' Here is his vision: A business comes to Meta with a product and a few ideas, and then Meta takes over; it does everything: creative concept, production, media strategy, analytics. Then AI constantly refines the ad in near-real time, on an ongoing basis, until it performs at maximum efficiency. Zuckerberg, somewhat brutally, implied that, in the future, advertising agencies will not be required. There are those who will strenuously object, who will talk about brand strategy and management, understanding client product roadmaps, and other assumed sacred cows — the 'deep' cores of the agency proposition. These too, I submit, will fall to AI as soon as it learns from hundreds of thousands of successful brand case studies and is able to generate a plethora of its own novel approaches. Audience targeting Finally, there is the matter of audience targeting. The holy grail of the advertising industry has long been the idea of the perfectly relevant ad — one that is pitched directly and only to individual consumers who are looking to buy that very product or service. Consumers have also sought the same thing: ads that matter to them and do not waste their attention. It has been assumed to be a perfect match of incentives. But AI is now able to understand much more about individuals than we are comfortable with. By analysing our internet behaviour, our social media behaviour, our friends, our devices, our buying patterns, even the tenor of our emotional states when we post, AI can paint a near-perfect picture of who we are at any moment. This intrusion is a privacy nightmare, one demanding regulation, which may not be properly enforceable in a fast-fracturing and chaotic landscape. There will, of course, be some advertising agencies which grab the nettle and shed their old skins to quickly embrace and exploit AI, perhaps pivoting quickly enough to other business models to avoid obsolescence. Others will end up like the celluloid film editors I used to know, obstinately and proudly refusing to submit to the newfangled video editing systems that started arriving in the late 1990s. They were brave and foolhardy, and they died alone. DM Maverick451 in SA and Legend Times Group in the UK/EU, available now.
eNCA
a day ago
- eNCA
WhatsApp introduces first major advertising features
SAN FRANCISCO - WhatsApp announced it will introduce its boldest advertising features yet, marking a significant shift for the messaging platform that has largely remained ad-free since its launch. The move is a sensitive one for WhatsApp, whose chief firmly denied a report in 2023 that said the Meta-owned app was exploring advertisements as it sought to boost revenue. Unlike Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms, WhatsApp has maintained minimal advertising since Meta acquired it in 2014. Users and regulators have kept a close watch on whether the social media giant would seek to monetise an app that was primarily used to chat with friends and family, and was appreciated for its privacy. Until now, the platform's advertising consisted primarily of WhatsApp Business promotional messages to opted-in customers and some limited Status ad testing in select markets. The messaging app has no display ads in chat feeds or conversations. The company said it will roll out three new monetisation features exclusively within its Updates tab, which houses both Channels and Status features used by 1.5 billion people daily and became widely available last year. The company stressed that users who only use WhatsApp for personal messaging will see no changes to their experience, as all new features are confined to the separate Updates tab. "We've been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years and we believe the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work," WhatsApp said. The new features include paid channel subscriptions, promoted channels in the Discovery directory, and advertisements within Status, WhatsApp's version of Instagram Stories. WhatsApp emphasised that the new advertising features are designed with privacy safeguards. "I want to be really clear about one thing: Your personal messages, calls and statuses will remain end-to-end encrypted. This means no one, not even us, can see or hear them, and they cannot be used for ads," Nikila Srinivasan, vice president of product management at Meta, told reporters. The company committed to never selling or sharing phone numbers to advertisers and said personal messages, calls, and group memberships will not influence ad targeting. "To show ads in Status or Channels, we're going to use basic information like your country or city, your device language and your activity in the Updates tab," Srinivasan said. The introduction of advertising represents Meta's effort to monetise WhatsApp's massive user base of over two billion monthly active users. Industry analysts have long speculated that Meta would eventually bring advertising to WhatsApp given its scale and engagement rates. The timeline for these features was not specified in the announcement. "They're going to be rolling out slowly over the next few months, so it might be a while until you see them in your countries," Srinivasan said.
The South African
2 days ago
- The South African
16 billion passwords leaked in massive data breach
Cybersecurity researchers uncovered a massive breach, with 16 billion passwords leaked in one of the biggest data exposures ever. The data trove, revealed by the Cybernews research team, could grant cybercriminals access to a wide range of online services and personal accounts. The researchers found 30 exposed datasets, each containing tens of millions to over 3.5 billion records. Most of the data includes a URL followed by login credentials and passwords, a format commonly collected by infostealer malware. Cybernews said the datasets appear to be a mix of credential-stuffing compilations, stealer malware output, and previously repackaged leaks. Researchers caution that some claims about stolen credentials from major platforms like Facebook, Apple, and Google exaggerate the facts. 'It's hard to miss anything when 16 billion records are on the table,' the researchers noted. However, the true number of unique records remains uncertain due to potential duplication across datasets. Cybercriminals now have unprecedented access to personal information from the leak, enabling them to carry out account takeovers, identity theft, and phishing attacks. Cybernews reported that security professionals may have compiled some of the data for monitoring, but cybercriminals almost certainly possessed some of the datasets. Aggregated databases are especially valuable for criminals looking to scale their attacks. According to cybersecurity experts cited by CBS News, taking immediate action following a data breach is critical to safeguarding your personal information. For those who struggle to memorise numerous complex passwords. A reliable password manager or the use of passkeys can simplify this task while greatly enhancing security. These tools generate strong, unique passwords and store them securely. In addition, enabling multifactor authentication, whether through a mobile phone, email, or a physical USB authenticator key, adds an essential second layer of protection. This extra step makes it significantly more difficult for unauthorised users to access your accounts, even if they obtain your login credentials. Maintaining strong cyber hygiene practices is essential today. Data breaches are becoming more common. Risks to personal privacy and financial security are higher than ever. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
