WhatsApp is one of the most popular chat applications out there. It’s popular, easy to use, and overall simple. Although everything seems simple with this application, it hides more than a few interesting tricks. They will make your experience much better.
With this in mind, here is a list of great WhatsApp tips and tricks that you may not have known about before.
Check if someone is online
If you frequently use Facebook Messenger and other apps, you’re used to being able to see if someone is online at all times. All you need to do is look at the person’s icon in your chat list and a green circle will indicate that they are online.
With WhatsApp things are not so simple. This feature is also not hidden, but you will not be able to see if someone is online by looking at their profile photo within the chat list.
To see if a user is online, open the WhatsApp app and navigate to Talks. This tab will be available at the bottom or top of the screen, depending on whether you are using an iOS or Android device.
Once you see a list of your chats, find the one with the person you want to check out. Tap this chat and you should see its status below the chat name. If they are online, it should say “online.” If not, it should say “last seen [insert date/time].”
If the contact in question is recording audio or typing at that particular time, that is what will be displayed.
Turn off last seen
As mentioned, you can see when a person was last online on WhatsApp by opening your conversation with them. Some people don’t want other people to know this. And this is within your right to privacy. WhatsApp allows users to disable the “Last Seen” feature.
To do this, go to Settings within the app, then select Account and navigate to Privacy. From there, choose the option that best suits you.
Read messages without causing a “view”
Ah, the old “seen”. No one likes the feeling of ending up on the receiving end of this. On the other hand, you probably don’t like having to reply to someone’s message right then and there because you don’t want to leave it with a “seen.” Sometimes you may want to be able to see how urgent a message is without notifying the sender.
Well, you can do this on WhatsApp. All you need to do is turn on airplane mode on your phone and then open WhatsApp to read that message. The sender will not see a double blue tick and you will be able to read the message.
Additionally, you can mark the chat as “unread” so you don’t forget to check the message, but this will not remove the “seen” mark. To do this, swipe right and tap unread for iOS devices. For Android devices, long press the conversation to mark it as unread. Use airplane mode and mark the chat as unread in combination.
Disable automatic media downloads
By default, WhatsApp automatically saves all media that is sent in your conversations. That way, you may end up with a bunch of messy photos and videos that will take up space on your Android/iOS device. Fortunately, this feature is easy to disable.
Within the WhatsApp app, go to Settings. Then select Talks and turn off the “Save to camera roll”Option for iOS devices. For Android devices, disable the ” buttonMedia Visibility” option.
Do you want WhatsApp to save media on your device only for some chats? Well, open a conversation and tap the group/contact name towards the top. Then navigate to Save to camera roll for iOS devices or Media Visibility for Android and choose your preferred settings.
Delete messages
The message deletion option was available for some time in most chat apps. However, you can only delete one message for yourself. In other words, other participants in the conversation will still be able to see it. However, a while ago WhatsApp introduced an option where you can delete a message for everyone.
To do this, select the message by holding it. Then select Delete and then Delete for everyone.
However, keep in mind that WhatsApp will notify other people that you have deleted a message there. Everyone will know that you sent and deleted a message.
Change font
WhatsApp does not have text editing capabilities like business-oriented chat apps. However, you can do more than you probably think. For example, you can convert plain font to italic or bold. To do that, type an asterisk, then start a piece of text and end it with an asterisk. To italicize text, begin and end with an underscore.
You can also add a strikethrough. To do this, start the text with an accent and, as you may have guessed, end with an accent. That gives you interesting text style options that you may not have known about before.
Spice up your photos
People love to send photos while chatting. It’s becoming an art form. WhatsApp, of course, supports this option. It also allows you to add various doodles and emoticons to your images while on the go. To add doodles, emojis, or text to a photo, select it as you would before sending it, but don’t tap the send arrow. You’ll see options for doodles, text, emoticons, and crop and rotate on the screen. Have fun with these options and then send the photo.
Browsing WhatsApp
WhatsApp comes with several features, some apparent, others not so much. Although you probably know some of the ones on this list, you probably didn’t know all of them. To use WhatsApp to the fullest, it is best to follow these tips.
What tip/trick did you find most useful? Do you have any other interesting ones up your sleeve? Feel free to let everyone know in the comments section below.