WhatsApp for Android tablet?

Pawnless Endgame · 8 Jul 2017 at 22:44

I have 3 Android phones (Android 4, 6 and 7) and WhatsApp installs and run ok on these. Hell, it even runs fine on desktop inside of a web browser.

However, the Play store says it's incompatible with my tablet (Android 6). If I google "WhatsApp for tablet", I get lots of 3rd party suggestions but I don't know which one to trust. Can someone please post a link to a legit Play store app?

Given that the days of Android 2 and 3 are over, Android 4 became the first version to be cross-platform (phones and tablets). Therefore is there a reason for the developers to not support tablets running Android 4+?

bremen1874 · 8 Jul 2017 at 22:54

I don't think WhatsApp is officially supported on any Android or iOS tablet.

Kainz · 8 Jul 2017 at 23:11

Whatsapp devs have stated many times that it is only for mobile devices, and not tablets as it requires a phone number for authentication. Telegram however does do tablets. Sadly on the android tablet end of things - things are practically stale.

Woden · 8 Jul 2017 at 23:30

I wouldn't totally discount it. Theres a windows client now. Still need a mobile with the app for authentication though.

The1nonly1 · 8 Jul 2017 at 23:38

Can you use WhatsApp Web on tablet? https://web.whatsapp.com/

VortexA1 · 9 Jul 2017 at 04:38

I managed to get WhatsApp working on my friends Sony tablet. Unfortunately right now I don't remember how it was done lol

Paul11 · 9 Jul 2017 at 08:03

same. i got it working on my mums galaxy tablet. a google search helped find a work around but cant remember exactly how i did it now

Pawnless Endgame · 9 Jul 2017 at 21:51

Kainz said:
Whatsapp devs have stated many times that it is only for mobile devices, and not tablets as it requires a phone number for authentication. Telegram however does do tablets. Sadly on the android tablet end of things - things are practically stale.

Thanks. I thought that tablets counted as mobile as it uses a mobile OS, as opposed to desktops and laptops using a desktop OS (yeah laptops count as desktop). Then I saw in your post that WhatsApp requires a phone number, so that clears it up :-)

The1nonly1 said:
Can you use WhatsApp Web on tablet? https://web.whatsapp.com/

Thanks. This worked :-)

When I'm at my parents, I sometimes bring just my phone and a tablet instead of the laptop, so that was why I wanted to use WhatsApp on the tablet sometimes.

FlyingFish · 10 Jul 2017 at 06:59

Just out of curiosity I've just tried this on my Samsung tablet and it's worked a treat. Well by the looks of things anyway. It's currently restoring media to mimic WhatsApp on my phone.

I went to apkmirror.com and downloaded the latest version of WhatsApp, it installed but did flag up that tablets aren't supported, though this didn't halt the installation. I used my mobile number to complete the installation, but I'm not sure if that's going to cause a conflict between the two devices.

Mick

Edit: hmm, just had to reauthorise on my mobile, haven't had chance to message or call yet.

reflux · 10 Jul 2017 at 09:06

AFAIK you can only have Whatsapp installed on one device at a time receiving messages. The only exception is using the web client.