32 Of The Best WhatsApp Tips And Tricks For 2018
WhatsApp, the popular messaging apps acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014, has been adding new features on a regular basis. As of January 2018, WhatsApp was hitting 1.5 billion monthly users who are sending 60 billion messages per day.
While WhatsApp seems like a basic and simple instant message application, it has a number of interesting and sophisticated features. Here are 32 WhatsApp tips and tricks that you should know about:
1.) Backing Up Chats (Helps When You Switch Phones)
WhatsApp allows you to back up your chat conversations and media using a cloud storage service so that you can restore the content again when you switch devices. You can set this up so it backs up automatically every day, every week or every month. This feature can be found under Settings > Chats > Chat Backup > Auto Backup. WhatsApp backs up with iCloud on iOS and Google Drive on Android.
After your WhatsApp chat conversations and media are backed up, you can restore it again after reinstalling WhatsApp. This is especially useful when you get a new device.
What I recommend that you do as good practice is ensure that the important photos and videos you receive are also backed up to a third party media storage service like Google Photos or Facebook.
2.) Check Who Has Read Your Messages
If you want to see who has read your message, then you can do so by opening the information panel of the message. On iOS, you can quickly pull it up by putting your finger on the message and then swipe from right to left or push down on the message and tap on Info. And on Android, you can tap and hold on the sent message and tap the info icon or you may have to tap on Menu button > Info.
3.) Clear Up Storage Space
WhatsApp allows you to see how much storage space is being used for each individual and group chat by going to Settings > Data and Storage Usage > Storage Usage. If you are running low on storage space on your device, then I would recommend backing up your important photos and videos to a service like Google Photos, iCloud or Amazon Photos before clearing it up on WhatsApp.
4.) Customize Notifications
You can customize the alert tones for each chat conversation on WhatsApp. This could help you distinguish which conversation each message is coming from. You can set this up by tapping on the name of the chat window and then tap Custom Tone. Then select the specific tone that you want for that group or individual chat.
5.) Declutter WhatsApp Without Leaving Groups
One of the best ways to keep WhatsApp app clean is by archiving inactive chat groups. This feature allows you to hide chat groups without actually leaving them. You can do this by swiping a chat group from right to left and then tapping on Archive on iOS. For Android, you would have to go to the Chats screen, tap and hold the chat window that you wish to hide and then tap on the Archive icon on the top bar.
6.) Edit Photos And Videos Before Sending
Before you send out photos and videos on WhatsApp, you can make some edits. Before you send out a photo, you can crop it, add stickers, write text and draw on it with a doodle tool. And with videos, you can crop the length, add stickers, add text and draw on it with a doodle tool.
This can be set up by tapping on the edit icons at the top right of the photo and video that you selected from your camera roll before you send it to your contacts.
7.) Exporting Chats
In case you want to export a chat conversation to your email or computer, you can do so by utilizing the Export Chat feature. This can be found by going to the Group Info or Contact Info of a chat by tapping on the name of the conversation at the top.
Then tap on Export Chat towards the bottom. You will then be asked if you want to Attach Media or export Without Media. Note: Attaching media generates a larger chat archive.
Once you make your selection, you will be asked where to send the zip file. That zip file will contain the media that you exported along with a text file of the conversation.
8.) Favorite Specific Messages
WhatsApp allows you to add messages as favorites. You can do this by pushing down on a message and tapping on the star icon. Once you favorite a certain message in a group or individual chat, you will be able to find it again by going to the Group Info section by tapping on the name of the chat at the top and then going to Starred Messages. I recommend using this feature when someone sends you pertinent information such as their address or a to-do list.
9.) Formatting Messages
You can highlight portions of your text using bold, italics and strikethrough, but the way in which you do so is not obvious. Here is how you do each of those options:
Bold - To make a portion of the text in bold, it requires an asterisk at the beginning and at the end of that text (*example*).
Italics - To make a portion of the text italicized, it requires an underscore at the beginning and at the end of that text (_example_).
Strikethrough - To strike through a portion of the text, it requires a tilde at the beginning and at the end of that text (~example~).
Another way to make your messages standout is by using a different font than the default one. WhatsApp allows you to use the FixedSys font by adding three grave symbols at the beginning and at the end of that text (```example```). You should be able to find the grave accent symbol by long pressing on the apostrophe key.
10.) Forwarding Messages
If you receive an interesting photo or video in a conversation, then you can forward it so you can avoid having to save the content and send it again as an attachment to another contact. This can be done by pushing down on that message and tapping forward.
11.) Get Rid Of The “Read” Blue Checkmarks
When you send out a message, you may notice that it has checkmarks next to it. One grey check mark shows that the message was sent. Two grey check marks show that the sent message was received. And two blue check marks will show that the receiver has read the message.
If you do not want people to see that you have read their messages, then you can disable this feature by going to Settings > Account > Privacy > Read Receipts. However, turning off read receipts will prevent you from being able to see read receipts from other users.
There is an interesting workaround for this though. If you turn on airplane mode on your device, then you can read the message without being detected. Then make sure you fully close the WhatsApp app and turn off airplane mode again. This should prevent the blue checkmarks from appearing on the sender’s device.
12.) Limiting Data Usage
With WhatsApp, you can preserve how much data you use through your phone plan. This can be especially useful if you have contacts who send you a lot of photos and videos.
You will be able to find this feature under Settings > Data and Storage Usage. From there you can decide whether to download photos, audio, videos and documents through Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi and Cellular or Never.
13.) Location Sharing
WhatsApp allows you to share your real-time location with users or you can quickly send your current location. You can do this by tapping on the + icon in a conversation and then tap on Location. Then you can decide whether to share your Live Location or your Current Location.
The Current Location feature can come in handy when you are in a location that is crowded or an area that you are not familiar with. For example, I had shared my Current Location to a friend when I was tailgating in an area that had hundreds of canopies during a football game last year. My friend was able to quickly find me by mapping where he was to the location I sent.
And the Live Location feature allows you to share your real-time location for 15 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours. This makes it easier for friends to track your location as you travel to meet them.
14.) Make Audio And Video Calls
One of the best features in WhatsApp is the ability to make audio and video calls with the app. This makes it easier to stay in touch with family and friends around the world. Earlier this year, Facebook also announced that group video calling would be coming to WhatsApp soon.
I would recommend that you use the Low Data Usage feature while making calls. This ensures that you lower the amount of data used during a WhatsApp call while you are on a cellular data connection. This setting can be found under Settings > Data and Storage Usage > Call Settings.
15.) Mark As Unread
Marking a chat thread as unread is a great way to remind you to reply later on in case you are too busy at the moment. You can mark a chat as unread by long pressing on the chat conversation and tap on Mark as Unread. On iOS, you can also mark a conversation as unread by swiping from left to right on the conversation and tapping on the Unread icon.
16.) Muting Conversations
In case you want to prevent messages from certain group chats to pop up temporarily, you can do so by muting the conversation. To set this up, tap on the name of the group or individual chat at the top to open the Group Info (group chat) or Contact Info (individual chat). Then tap on Mute and select eight hours, one week or one year.
17.) Pinning Conversations
If you have many active conversations going at the same time, then I would recommend that you pin the most important ones to the top. If you swipe a conversation from left to right, then you will notice an option to pin the conversation. Or on certain Android devices, you may have to long press the conversation and tap the pin icon.
18.) Prevent Media From Saving To Your Camera Roll
By default, WhatsApp will save media that you receive to your Camera Roll. This could end up cluttering up your Camera Roll and the photo storage service that you use. If you want to prevent this from happening, then go to Settings > Chats > toggle off Save to Camera Roll (iOS) or Settings > Chat settings > Media auto-download (Android).
19.) Quickly Find The Media, Links And Docs In The Group
One of the most underrated features in WhatsApp is the ability to quickly find media, links and docs in the chat history. You can quickly find this by going to the Group Info section by tapping on the name of the chat window and then tap on Media, Links, and Docs. The media section will show you photos and videos that were sent in the chat, the links section will show all the hyperlinks sent in the chat and the Docs section contains PDFs and other documents that were sent.
20.) Quickly Unsend Messages
WhatsApp rolled out the ability to “unsend” messages in October 2017. After you "unsend" a message, the recipient will see a post that says “this message was deleted.” The "unsend" feature works for regular messages and attachments such as photos, videos, voice messages, GIFs, etc.
To "unsend" a message on WhatsApp, simply push down on the message you just sent and select the “Delete” button. Then you will be asked whether you want to Delete for Me or Delete for Everyone. When you delete it for everyone, then the message will be removed from the message feed of that chat group (for the people that have not read it yet). Plus the message will also be removed from the Notification Center / Lock Screen of the devices that received that message. The Delete for Me option just removes it from your device only.
21.) Remove The “Last Seen” Time
If someone opens your profile or you are having a one-to-one conversation with someone, then they can see the last time you opened WhatsApp. This feature is known as “last seen.” You can turn off this feature by going to Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen. Disabling this feature will also prevent you from seeing when other users were “last seen” though.
22.) Reply To Specific Messages
If you want to reply to specific messages in a conversation, then the best way to do so is by pushing down on that message and tapping on reply. This will show people in the chat that you are addressing a specific message by first linking to that message and then showing your reply to it.
23.) Saving Chat Shortcuts To The Home Screen (Android Only)
If you have an Android device, then you can save shortcuts to conversations on the Home screen. This can be set up by pushing down on a chat and tapping on Add Chat Shortcut. This will add an icon to the home screen with the conversation title and photo.
24.) Sending GIFs
In order to send a GIF on WhatsApp, tap on the + icon next to the conversation area. Then tap on Photo & Video Library and at the bottom left, you will notice a GIF search option. From there, you can search for GIFs using Tenor to add it to the conversation. Or you can use a separate GIF app to copy and paste one over such as Giphy. Personally, I use keyboard apps like Gboard (Google’s keyboard app) and SwiftKey (Microsoft’s keyboard app), which have built-in GIF search engines that you can use to copy and paste over to WhatsApp.
25.) Send Messages Hands-Free
You can use tools like Siri on iOS and Google Assistant on Android to send messages on WhatsApp without having to type. When you activate these digital assistants on your mobile device, you can say “Send a message on WhatsApp.” Then Siri or Google Assistant will ask you who you want to send the message to.
You can also have your digital assistant read your last message out loud. This can be done by saying "Hey Siri" or "OK Google" followed by the command "Read my last WhatsApp message."
26.) Send The Same Message To Multiple Contacts
Did you know that you can send the same message to multiple contacts at the same time? This can be especially useful if you want to send the same photo or video to a number of people without having to attach it to each person individually. You can do this by tapping on the Broadcast Lists option at the top. Then create a “New Group.”
From there, you can decide which individuals you want to send your messages on a Broadcast List. This feature can be compared to sending emails with the BCC option.
27.) Sending Voice Messages
If you want to add some personality to your WhatsApp messages, then you could consider sending a voice message. This can be done by tapping the microphone icon next to the conversation box and recording the content that you would like to send. This feature will record what you are saying and then send it to your contacts.
28.) Share “Status” For 24 Hours
As of about a year ago, WhatsApp said that its “Status” feature has over 175 million daily users. WhatsApp Status is a feature that allows users to share photos, videos and text status messages for a 24 hour period and then it disappears. Snapchat is known for originally popularizing the ephemeral story concept and later Facebook implemented the same feature into Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and the main Facebook app.
To create a WhatsApp Status, tap on the Status button and then tap on “Add to my status” (iOS) or “My Status” (Android). When you add a photo, video or text, it will be placed in your Status slideshow for 24 hours for users to see. To control the privacy of your status, go to Settings > Privacy > Status. You can delete a status by tapping on the eye icon -- which is where it shows the names of the people that looked at your Status content -- and then tap on the trash can icon.
29.) Tagging Users In Group Conversations
In case you want to draw the attention of a user in a group chat, you can tag that person. This can be done by typing in the @ symbol as you write a conversation. That user will be notified that he or she has been tagged even if they muted the conversation. Note: the user you tag must be in the group chat that you are tagging them in.
30.) Turn Off Previews
When you receive a message on WhatsApp, you will notice that the notification of the message shows a preview of what was sent on your Lock Screen or Notification Center. You can enable and disable this setting by going to Settings > Notifications > toggle off Show Preview.
31.) Two-Step Verification
The two-step verification feature provides an extra layer of security to WhatsApp. The two-step verification requires you to create a 6-digit PIN number when registering your phone number with WhatsApp again. You should be very careful about not losing this number because you could get locked out of your account if you lose it. To enable this feature, go to Settings > Account > Two-Step Verification > Enable.
32.) WhatsApp For Web And Desktop
If you prefer to use your computer to communicate on WhatsApp, then you can do so by downloading WhatsApp for desktop on Windows and Mac. After you download the desktop version of WhatsApp, you will be asked to scan a QR code from your mobile device in order to verify your identity.
As of right now, WhatsApp is not available for tablets such as the iPad. However, you can use WhatsApp on tablets by opening your tablet's web browser and going to web.whatsapp.com. Then follow the same steps mentioned above. There are also third-party apps that allow you to log into your WhatsApp account with your tablet.
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