We bring you a list of the WhatsApp tricks that you should know and the fact is that the app has been renewing itself more and more, including functions, shortcuts and features that can be quite useful, but if you want to get the most out of it you should Learn how each of them works.
Certainly, things have changed in WhatsApp when the new privacy policies are definitively activated that will limit your account until you accept them, but that has not made it stop being the most popular messaging platform and it is the product of all the tools that we shake hands for fun and helpful conversations.
We have gathered some very helpful tips about WhatsApp including the hidden features of WhatsApp you probably never knew about.
WhatsApp Tips and Tricks
Send a Message without saving the number
85% out of 100 people reading this post might have probably come across such occasions where you tried to send a message to someone through WhatsApp without saving the number. Yes, you can actually send a message to anybody without saving the number. All you have to do is open your web browser > and type the number into the address bar using the URL https://wa.me/thenumber e.g. https://wa.me/2348028925413.
Forward messages to more than 5 persons
A few years back, WhatsApp users were always complaining of fake news and forwarded messages across contacts. This became very annoying and WhatsApp officials had to find a way to reduce the spread of fake news on the platform, so they reduced the number of people you can forward a message to at once.
However, not everyone on WhatsApp shares fake news and this feature that WhatsApp added to reduce the spread of fake news affected innocent businessmen using WhatsApp as a medium to reach their customers.
But there’s still a feature on WhatsApp that allows you to forward messages to more than 5 contacts at once.
All you have to do to send a message to more than 5 contacts at once is;
- Open Whatsapp
- Click on the three dots at the top right corner
- Tap on New Broadcast
- Select the contacts you want to forward the messages to
- Enter the message and send it.
Stylish Text
Maybe your friend has sent you a message on WhatsApp before with a different font kind of stylish text, you don’t know how he or she did that but you also want to use stylish text. All you have to do is Open PlayStore> Search for Stylish text> install the application.
Enable the floating bubble, and then you can change your WhatsApp font when sending a message to anybody and it will appear just the way you sent it from your device on the person’s phone. How interesting!!
Find out the exact time when your message was read
This feature is most relevant to lovers and their partners. It allows you to know the exact time you sent a message and the time the message was read by the receiver. All you have to do is;
- Click and hold on the message
- Tap on the three dots on the top right corner
- Select info
- You’ll find the time the message was delivered and the time the receiver read it.
Stop interrupting messages with Pause it.
Have you ever been watching a movie maybe on Netflix or Amazon Prime e.t.c and then a WhatsApp message notification pop-ups to interrupt the movie? I know how frustrating it can be, so what you have to do here to stop the interruption is just Download and Pause it from PlayStore. This application allows you to do anything on your phone without being interrupted by WhatsApp messages.
Protect your personal information
Now, if we move on to the privacy segment now that it is such a controversial topic on WhatsApp, we will explain how to ensure the privacy of your data, that is, that you can have control over who sees your profile picture, the information of your profile and also who can see your last connection time, you can even control who can know if you are online and the contacts with access to your status.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Enter the WhatsApp settings, which are located in the menu of the three points in the upper right
- Then choose the Account option
- At this time, select the Privacy menu
- From now on you can set all the parameters according to each aspect of your information, allowing everyone to see it, or only your contacts to see it.
However, there is the other side of the coin and that is that sometimes we want to know when they are online with us on WhatsApp, to be honest, there is a way to know and there are apps dedicated to saying it.
Hide double blue check
Another privacy problem that we may have comes from the read confirmation or the well-known “double blue check” because once the message is read, it generates the commitment to issue a response and it can also be a reason for discussion having read a message and not have answered, but there is a solution: disable it.
It is important that you know that this is one of the functions of WhatsApp that has reciprocity, that is, although they will not be able to see your read receipts, you will not be able to have those of your contacts either.
To deactivate it then you must follow the following steps:
- Let’s go back to WhatsApp settings, which are in the upper right in a three-point menu.
- Select the Account option
- Next, choose the Privacy menu
- There you will see the Read Receipts option, which you can turn off at that point.
Read messages secretly
We are now going to an intermediate alternative because deactivating the read confirmation is perhaps something very radical for you, however, there is a way to read the messages that are sent to you without others knowing it, however, it is a method, especially for users of Android mobiles.
The way to do this is by using the official WhatsApp widget, when you activate it you will be able to read the messages you receive, but these will not appear as read and therefore your contacts will not see the double blue check.
Reading from notifications can also work for you, however messages that are very long will not be able to see them in full, nor will you be able to see more than one message at a time.
Finally, there is the old trick of activating airplane mode to read the message and closing the conversation before deactivating it so that the message is not marked as read, however, in your next connection with WhatsApp, the person will be notified of your reading, so this method will only serve to delay your response a bit.
You should know that there are also some tricks that your contacts can use to know at what time the message sent to you by WhatsApp was read.
Now, if what you want is to completely turn off messaging for a while, without the pressure of your contacts on reading a message, then you must know those ways to disconnect WhatsApp without having to remove the Internet from your phone.
Use your fingerprint to protect your account
We continue with the privacy and security tricks in WhatsApp, at this point we explain how to use the biometrics of your mobile to also protect your conversations in this messaging so that a third party cannot read your chats without your authorization. Probably the blocking of the mobile itself would be enough, but an additional layer of security never hurts.
The good thing about this functionality in WhatsApp is that it is available for both iOS and Android, so regardless of the operating system you use, you can activate this extra privacy option for your chats. Now we explain how to do it:
- Enter the WhatsApp settings menu that you will find in the upper right part of the screen, identified with three points
- Now, select the Account option
- Next, choose the Privacy menu
- Finally, tap on the Fingerprint lock option and activate it.
Limit invitations to groups
To move on from privacy and be able to talk about other types of important tricks on WhatsApp, we explain how to limit invitations to groups, something that has always been very controversial because for a long time, anyone could add you without your consent, however, it is something that now you can change.
Natively, everyone can add you to a group, but if you don’t want it to be so, then you must tell WhatsApp, for this there is an option that limits these actions, allowing everyone to do so or creating some specific exceptions.
- Enter the WhatsApp settings, it is the three-dot menu that is located in the upper right part of your screen.
- Now you must enter the Account option
- Then choose Privacy
- You will find an option called “Who can add you to groups”
- In this step, you can select the configuration that best suits your needs and you can exclude any of your contacts.
Activate dark mode on WhatsApp
Now we turn to the tricks of appearance and utilities in WhatsApp. Although most mobile phones have their own dark mode that is applied to all the apps you use, the truth is that WhatsApp has its own mode and it is to be expected that this is the case, but the novelty is that it is available for both mobile phones and for computers.
On mobile, it will be enough to enter the app settings, located in the upper right part and you must enter the Chats option, then select the Themes menu and there you will see the dark mode setting so you can activate it.
In the case of using it on your computer, it works almost the same, but you must remember that it is possible both in the web version and in the downloadable client. In this case, click on the three-point menu on the list of chats, then choose the Settings option that is almost at the end and then Theme, where you will see that you can activate the dark mode.
Share your Live Location
This function is very useful in cases where you are not sure of the name of the street or neighbourhood where you are, for example, and someone wants to come to you. Or when you take an Uber and for safety reasons you want to send your real-time location to your mom, dad or anyone else you trust.
Whatever the reason, the feature of sending location is little used and deserves more attention. It’s important that you follow each of the steps here carefully so you don’t end up just sending your current location once. The purpose of this function is to keep the contact always updated with your location based on the cell’s GPS.
- Open a conversation with whoever wants to share the location in real time and then click on “ location ” in the attachment menu next to the camera (the one with a pin icon);
- Then tap Live location and then set the time you would like to share this location with the person.
And that’s it, you’ll have shared your location in real-time with the person in question. You can do this for up to 8 hours in one shot if you feel it is necessary for some reason. Obviously, this will use background data from your smartphone and also the GPS.
Send messages that self-destruct
It took a while, but WhatsApp finally allows you to send photos and videos that erase themselves. The feature, which already exists on platforms such as Facebook Messenger and Instagram, makes content disappear as soon as the recipient opens the message.
Using this function is very simple. When selecting a photo or video to send on WhatsApp, notice the circle icon with a “1” inside. Just tap on it so that the other person can only see the media once.
Whatsapp Web: Use WhatsApp from your computer
Surely you already know this and it is a tool that has been available for a long time, but the truth is that not all users know that there is a version of WhatsApp Web for desktop and this section is precisely for them.
These are WhatsApp Web and WhatsApp Desktop, the first option will be used to use it online and the second alternative must be downloaded to your computer; however, both need your phone connected for them to work, that is, it is not really an independent tool, but rather a second screen for this app.
In order to use it, you must scan the QR code presented by WhatsApp Web or WhatsApp Desktop with your mobile, you will see that there is an option in the application menu and when you click on it, you must then choose the option to link a new device.
Remove your name from the profile
When we register on WhatsApp, the application asks us to write a name with which other people will identify us, however, in some cases for security reasons we want not to do this and the truth is that you cannot stop writing anything, although there is a little trick with which you can “do it”.
- Enter your WhatsApp profile
- Then select the option Edit your name
- Then delete the name you have written and simply put a period (.)
- Now click on the save option and that’s it, only a point will appear and no type of information is directly linked to you.
Change your profile picture
It is a simple procedure, something that many probably know, but it does not hurt to explain it to those who are not completely tech-savvy. Changing the profile picture in WhatsApp is very easy to achieve for both iOS and Android and you can do it like this:
on Android
If your phone is Android, these are the steps you must follow:
- Enter WhatsApp and click on the icon that has the shape of three vertical points, located at the top right and enter “settings”.
- Now click on your profile image and then on your photo to add a new one from your gallery or taken directly from the camera.
on iPhone
Changing your WhatsApp image in the iPhone app is also quite easy to do, to do so follow these steps:
- Open WhatsApp and tap on “settings”.
- Inside, click on your photo.
- Finally, click on “add photo” or “modify photo”, depending on whether or not you have a photo on, one thing or another will come out. It is important to remember that it is not possible to place a GIF as a profile picture.
Write in Bold, italic and strikethrough
Another quite old trick in WhatsApp is to write in bold, italics and strikethrough, however, there are many people who still do not know how to do it and that is why we wanted to refresh that trick in this list.
- Write in bold: you must place the word or phrase you want to send in bold within two asterisks, for example, *The Computer Group*
- Write in italics: In this case, you must repeat the same procedure, but you must use underscores as follows: _El Grupo Informático_
- Write crossed out: The procedure is repeated, but this time with a different symbol, you must use the tildes to achieve it, as follows: ~El Grupo Informático~
In addition to writing in bold, italics and strikethrough, there is also a trick so you can make the font bigger in WhatsApp.
Change Chat Background
This is a trick that will allow you to add a little more fun to your WhatsApp conversations, although it is true that all chats come with a preset background, you can customize it with the chat backgrounds that you like the most procedure is quite easy.
The change can be done in general for all conversations, or you can choose a specific background for one of your chats. Both on Android and iPhone, it works the same way; You must go to the settings, then to the chat section and then choose the Wallpaper option.
You have four possible categories to choose from: light backgrounds, dark backgrounds, solid colours and you can also choose one of the images from your gallery to place it as a background within the application.
How to send voice notes without holding the button
Another trick that also has some time available is to send voice messages without keeping the button pressed and it can be uncomfortable if your notes have a somewhat long duration, however, WhatsApp has a simple trick to relieve you of the discomfort.
To achieve this, you only need to press the voice message button and then slide your finger with the button pressed up, in this way, the recording process will be maintained, when finished you only have to press the send symbol or read the following trick.
Listen to your voice notes before sending
It may be that you are interested in listening to the content of a voice note that you recorded before sending it to your contact and although it is not a native function, it is a small trick that will allow you to play it before sending, for this you will have to trick WhatsApp.
- Enter the conversation in which you want to send the voice message
- Now apply the above trick to record hands-free voice notes and start recording your message, but in parallel press the back button to exit that conversation.
- Then re-enter the chat where you recorded the voice note, at which point you will see a message player at the bottom of the screen so you can listen to it before pressing the send arrow.
In this section, it is important to highlight a problem that many users may have and that is that when listening to WhatsApp audio the screen turns off, but there is a way to solve this problem.
You can also download WhatsApp voice notes and convert them to MP3 because we know that the platform stores voice files in a different compression format and you can’t play it automatically on any player.
Voice messages from the computer
Something that can be quite comfortable if you are working is to use WhatsApp Web and all the functions that this option can give you, one of them is to send voice notes from the computer, you will see that in the desktop version, there is also a button for text messages. voice in the same place as on mobile.
The difference in this function is that you must authorize WhatsApp to use your computer’s microphone to record and voila, it will be as you do on the phone.
Voice calls and video calls from WhatsApp Web
WhatsApp calls are also available from the desktop version, you will see that in each chat there are respective buttons at the top right to make these video calls from your computer.
These video calls can be of up to 8 participants, for this you can invite people or create a group in which the 8 participants are already present. Information of interest that you may have is to know where these calls that we make within the messaging system are stored and thus you can be calm about the data they store for greater privacy.
You should not confuse the storage of calls with the storage of WhatsApp audios and that is why it is important to know where the WhatsApp audios are stored, including where the voice notes are stored for when we need to locate a specific one.
Now that you know how to make voice calls on WhatsApp and where they are stored, you can also record WhatsApp calls, something we have talked about earlier.
Rooms, for video calls of up to 50 people
This is a functionality that is available both on the computer and on the mobile app, it allows you to make video calls with up to 50 people and for this, you only have to go to the calls section in the WhatsApp tabs.
Then you will see a small symbol that is on the new call button and you only have to click on that button to use it, the only drawback is that you must use it in conjunction with Facebook Messenger.
Send emojis in any size
We all know emojis and we love using them in conversations, in fact, it is a feature that has always been available in WhatsApp chats, and can vary in size depending on the number you use in the same message.
If you want an emoji to be big you must send one at a time, otherwise, they will change to their smaller version, they will also be small if you send them with a text message.
Also, send a GIF
If you enter the emojis menu, you will see three different tabs at the bottom and one of them is where the integrated GIFs are. You can access an integrated search engine where you will find all kinds of GIFs available, which you can associate with any situation or theme.
There you will also see the stickers that you can download or save the ones you like the most in fact, we have a guide so you know how to create them and have your own collections with many funny stickers.
Remove the sound from your videos before sending them
Sometimes we only want to send a video because of the images it contains and we are not interested in sending the sound, also removing the sound can make it a little lighter when sending it, for this, you must click on the speaker button that is located on the left part of the video editor.
Mark messages as favourites
If you need to have a message from a conversation so that it is always visible, you can do it in a very simple way, you just need to click on that message and then click on the star-shaped button that will appear at the top, allowing you to convert that message in favourite.
After you have marked the message, you must go to the name of the conversation above the chat, click on chat settings and then you must click on the Featured Messages option, so they will appear in chronological order according to how you have selected it.
Quote a message to reply
If you are in a conversation in which many topics are being touched, or you are in a group and you need to respond to a specific message, it would be best to quote the text to which you want to refer and it is a native function of WhatsApp.
To quote a message and reply to it, you must follow these steps:
- Click on the selected message
- Then, press on the left arrow icon that will appear in the button menu located at the top
- Now you will see the quoted message and you just have to write your answer
Delete a message for everyone
Sometimes we send messages that we wish we hadn’t sent and it can also happen that you wrote something wrong, so WhatsApp gives you the opportunity to be able to delete the message for you and the recipient, but there are two conditions to achieve it: the first is that the recipient has not read the message and the other condition is that you must do so within an hour of sending the message.
The native procedure is simple and we explain how to achieve it:
- The first thing you should do is go to the conversation in which the message you want to delete is located and select it
- Then click on the trash can icon that appears in the top menu and when you press you will see a dialog box that has as the last option “Delete for all”
- At that point, the message has already been deleted for everyone involved, but remember that they will still see a notification that a message has been deleted.
- However, there is a trick so that you can delete the message you want even after the time has expired.
When applying the trick to delete a message after a time, if you do not remember to put the real-time back, you may have problems with your WhatsApp account, but it is a small problem that you can solve in seconds, in most cases.
Another inconvenience that may arise after applying this trick is that your connection fails and some messages from your contacts are not reaching you, but for this, we have also talked about a solution before.
You should also know that although a message can be deleted for everyone, there are ways so that the other person can also read that message that was deleted, in fact, there are apps or small tricks dedicated to allowing people to obtain the content that you deleted as well. a few minutes ago.
How to export an entire chat
If you want to export a complete chat, including images, we show you a trick that you can use and that will be useful to save or share everything said and sent in a specific conversation, from photos and sent files. Remember that this is a different action than a backup of your account and that in some cases, those copies may have problems restoring.
To achieve this, you must follow the following steps:
- Enter the WhatsApp settings, which are located in the upper right part of the screen, within the menu identified with three dots
- Now click on the Chats option
- Then choose Chat Settings, then click on Chat History.
- Next, you must click on the Export chat option and then choose the one you want to export.
- There you can choose if you want to export only the texts or if you want to include the multimedia files.
- Finally, choose the method to share or save the chat you want to export.
Remember that when you export a chat, you are neither emptying it nor deleting the conversation, since they are different actions.
There is also the possibility of reading the daily backup copies that WhatsApp makes of your account, but you must bear in mind that it is a “crypt12” file that has a password to access it and for this, you need to have a mobile phone with access to the account.
In case you want to create a backup in WhatsApp Plus, it works in a different way, but it is just as easy to do it as in the official app and it does not require more knowledge to achieve it.
Know who visits your WhatsApp profile
Many times we wonder who visits our WhatsApp profile and the truth is that until now there is no tool that allows us to know exactly who does it, however, there is a section of your profile that can give you some idea of the contacts that visit your information, and are the states.
When posting a new Status, in the next 24 hours you will be able to see who viewed what you posted and probably these people have also seen your full profile within the platform at some point.
How to create original WhatsApp groups
The objective of WhatsApp groups may have been lost at some point for many people, but the truth is that they are spaces that can be as fun as you want, you should also keep in mind that the name of the group will often define the objective of the group. same.
You can have WhatsApp groups for all kinds of activities: family, friends, work colleagues, school groups, university, neighbours, activities of interest… and that’s why we have a post dedicated to the funniest names for WhatsApp groups. according to the type of group you want to create.
How to have two WhatsApp accounts on the same mobile
There is a legitimate way to have two WhatsApp accounts on your mobile, beyond using the WhatsApp MODs that are very popular like WhatsApp Plus and that is WhatsApp Business, a tool that has been available for some time and is quite useful if you have a professional profile or some type of online business.
WhatsApp Business allows you to legitimately have two different accounts on the same mobile, one of them can be personal and the other professional, with two different phone numbers and in the case of the business version it includes a series of quite interesting features.
You must first download the app in the application store of your operating system and then follow the instructions of the platform itself, or you can go right now to the link that we left you in the previous paragraph and follow our guide to achieve it correctly. successful.
Now if you do not have a phone number that you can use to create a second WhatsApp account, it is very easy to achieve it; for this, there are applications and web pages that allow you to obtain a virtual number and we have explained it before.
Why can’t you install WhatsApp?
It may be that one of the problems that you have with WhatsApp is that you cannot install the app, but don’t worry because there is a solution so that you can finally have messaging available on your mobile. The reasons can be varied, from not having access to data, to an error presented by the application store itself.
These problems mostly occur on Android, you might see errors 413, 481, 491, 492, 505, 907, 910, 921, 927, 941 or DF-DLA-15 and they are all associated with the Google Play Store.
The solution is quite simple: you must delete the Google account from the mobile, then you must add it again and finally, you must clear the cache of the Play Store; this procedure should fix the problem.
It is important that you keep in mind that sometimes the inconvenience can also be caused by not having enough space in the phone’s memory and in this case, your problem will be solved by deleting files to make room for WhatsApp.
You also need to know that your account could have been suspended but don’t worry because there are ways to recover it in that case.
Finally, after applying this procedure, you can then download the latest version of WhatsApp for free so that you can have the messaging platform on your mobile permanently.