Many of you that use Whatsapp (which is a very popular messaging app owned by Facebook), may have noticed that there was update last night or this morning (depending on your timezone). Well that update brought something important to the app, and that’s Android Wear support. So now you will be able to reply to your contacts when they send messages to you, without picking up your phone.
The update will allow to read, reply and swipe away messages straight from your wrist. Prior to the update, you could swipe away messages, but you couldn’t reply to them. So I actually had them muted on my G Watch as it was unnecessary to me. But it’s great to see more and more apps adding Android Wear support. Soon Android Wear will have more apps than Tizen, which Samsung touts as having over a thousand apps. Now I’m not sure how many are apps you’d want to use, but they do have that many for their smartwatches.
The Whatsapp update works on Android 2.1 and above. However, Android Wear only works with devices running Android 4.3 and above – that’s due to Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy – so you’ll need to have Android 4.3 or above to be able to use Whatsapp with Android Wear. And after using it a bit, it’s definitely awesome to be able to respond to your friends straight from your watch. It’s one less reason to pull out your phone.
Whatsapp was recently bought by Facebook, so it’s surprising to see them adding Android Wear support to their app, but it is definitely welcomed as it is one of the biggest messaging apps around right now. How many of you are using Whatsapp and Android Wear? Are you excited to see this integration finally become available? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.