Can you set up WhatsApp on someone else's IPad if they don't have a Smartphone?

[Oneearringlost]

My elderly mother doesn't have a smartphone but does use her IPad.
Can I set up WhatsApp on her IPad using my smartphone to scan in the QR code?
I've googled and searched but I'm not sure if this is possible/legitimate and if there are any hidden implications that would affect me, if I did that.
Can anyone help?
Thank you

No I don’t think so. That would set her up in your what’s app account. You could buy a really cheap basic smart phone just for what’s app

You can only put WhatsApp on an iPad if you have a smart phone. It isn’t designed to run on an iPad. It needs a smart phone to link to.

You can - you need a different SIM card I think? We did this for our son. I say we - DH did it. So change sim, set up WhatsApp. Then can use on iPad.

Why not download the WhatsApp app onto the iPad and see if it works? It says that you do need a phone number, but I can’t see anything about needing a smartphone.

I did it for may MIL last week but she does have an iPhone too.

Ah, thank you! A different sim card, yes, that makes sense.
As @despairofbadscience says, it would be linked to my account, obviously. I think I'm going to have to get her a cheap smartphone to do this.
She's 95 and will NOT use a smartphone...but I saw that you can set it up on IPADs now but was unsure of all the ins and outs.
Thank you!

Yes, i thought about this but it needs a QR code scanning into the WhatsApp set-up page, so, although she has a phone number on a brick phone, she can't scan in the QR code when you have downloaded the WhatsApp app, to set up.
Thank you!

You can do it but you will need a SIM card.

Does your Mum have any type of mobile phone? If so use the SIM from that. If not then you will need to buy a PAYG SIM card. You need to put that SIM into a Smartphone and setup Whatsapp using that phone number. Then you can link the iPad to that account by scanning the barcode on the smartphone.

After that remove the SIM from the phone, put the original back in and set Whatsapp on the phone back to the original number. The IPad will continue to receive Whatsapp messages, there is no need for the PAYG SIM to be connected.

This! Much better explained than me!

That's so helpful. Thank you!
Yes, so I can put her brick phone sim into an old smartphone of mine, set it up using the smartphone to scan in the QR Code, then put her own sim card back into her brickphone? And it'll be linked to her brickphone number
I've understood that right, have I?

I'm off to root out and charge up an old smartphone.
Thank you SO much @Aaron95 and everyone else. X