WhatsApp is arguably the most popular messaging platform in the world, with Mark Zuckerberg claiming that 100 billion messages are sent each day through the Meta/Facebook-owned company (we’ll give you a moment to let that sink in).
But what if you want to use WhatsApp on your Mac to reply to the messages instead of your iPhone? Is there a way to do that? As it turns out, there are a number of ways to access WhatsApp on a Mac, and here we outline your best options.
This article therefore explains how to open, send and receive messages via WhatsApp for iPhone (or Android!) on your Mac. Oh, and if you want to use WhatsApp on your iPad, we have a separate tutorial for that.
Update January 25, 2023: A native WhatsApp Mac app is coming soon – right now it’s in open beta.
Using WhatsApp Web to get WhatsApp on a Mac
Foundry
In 2015, WhatsApp started offering a version of WhatsApp for PC and Mac users called WhatsApp Web. It is essentially a browser-based WhatsApp app, allowing users to log in and access their WhatsApp messages from virtually any device.
- Open WhatsApp on your iPhone.
- Tap Settings.
- Tap in Paired devices.
- Click Pair a device.
- Go to the WhatsApp website.
- Scan the QR code that appears on the website with your iPhone.
- Wait while logged in to the website.
You can use WhatsApp Web to send and receive WhatsApp messages on up to four paired devices and one phone.
Keep in mind that because WhatsApp connects to your iPhone to sync messages, you’ll need to make sure it’s connected to Wi-Fi or you may end up consuming your data.
You still have access to all available calls on your smartphone. In addition, you can send and receive media, participate in group chats, send and receive voice notes, and even receive notifications when a new message is received.
You can even record voice notes to send to friends. Next to Type a message you will see a microphone icon, click on it and (after approval to use your microphone) you can record an audio message.
Using WhatsApp Desktop to get WhatsApp on a Mac
Following the success of WhatsApp Web, Whatsapp launched its own desktop app for Mac and PC users. It can be downloaded for free from the WhatsApp website or from the Mac App Store and is extremely easy to set up.
- Download, install and open WhatsApp Desktop.
- As with the web browser version, you need to open WhatsApp on your iPhone and scan the QR code, so tap Settings > Paired devices > Pair a device > and scan the QR code.
- You will see all your WhatsApp conversations appear in the app window.
Once you’ve paired your PC or Mac with your mobile device, your WhatsApp contacts and conversations will be instantly synced to your desktop. All messages sent or received are displayed in real time on both your phone and the desktop app. So if you delete a conversation on your phone, it will also be deleted from your desktop app and vice versa.
As with the web app, you’ll need to have your phone’s data or Wi-Fi enabled, so make sure you have a mobile data plan that meets your requirements or that you’re on a Wi-Fi network. If your phone is not connected, you will not receive messages and your sent messages will be put on hold.
If you ever want to stop your desktop app sending and receiving your messages, simply log out of the desktop app.
After you sign in to the Desktop app, you’ll see a warning asking if you want to sign out of the browser version.
How to use the new WhatsApp for Mac app (beta).
Foundry
This Whatsapp Mac app (above) is actually web-based, but a new native app is coming to the Mac. The app is currently in beta and can be downloaded here if you want to try it out.
The process to set it up is very similar to the above:
- Download the app (currently in beta).
- Open WhatsApp on your iPhone.
- Tap Settings.
- Tap in Paired devices.
- Click Pair a device.
- Scan the barcode that appears in the app with your iPhone.
There are some additional features in this version of the app. For example, you can set up notifications and choose whether or not to see message previews.
The other new feature is the ability to make video calls using WhatsApp on Mac.
Video calling on WhatsApp on Mac
The iOS version of WhatsApp allows you to make video calls by simply tapping the video camera icon at the top of a message thread. You can even add up to four more participants.
Unfortunately, this has not been replicated by the desktop or browser versions of the app, so it was not possible to make Whatsapp video calls on the Mac. But that is changing!
With the beta version of the new Whatsapp app for Mac, you can make video calls.
- Click Calls in the column on the left.
- Click the phone icon.
- Find the person in your contacts you want to call.
- Approve the request to access your microphone and video camera.
- Make the call.
Before the beta arrived, the only way to make Whataspp calls on your Mac was to install an iOS or Android emulator on your Mac.
If you have Xcode, you may be able to emulate iOS WhatsApp there. You can also try the following Android emulators:
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AndY
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no
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BlueStacks
