Over a billion people use WhatsApp every day to stay connected with family, friends, colleagues and customers.
The cross-platform messaging app, bought by Facebook in 2014 for $22 billion, announced this week it WhatsApp Business plans. It’s time to get the most out of this cross-platform messaging app with these 18 WhatsApp hacks and product features.
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UPDATE: This post was last updated on 28 November 2017 to include the ability to:
- Delete and revoke messages sent in error
- Share content that disappears after 24 hours
- Share Live Location
Table of contents
1
Use WhatsApp on your computer
WhatsApp is accessible both on your phone and your computer. WhatsApp desktop app and WhatsApp Web are computer based extensions of the WhatsApp account on your phone.
The messages you send and receive are fully synced between your phone and your computer, and you can see all messages on both devices. Any action you take on the phone will apply to WhatsApp on your computer and vice versa.
Go to https://www.whatsapp.com/download from your computer’s browser.
2
Bold text
If you used Google Plus G+ you might remember that Google’s ill-fated social media platform offered users a way to bold, italicise and strikethrough text. WhatsApp has a similar set of hacks.
Enter an asterisk on either side of the word(s) you want emphasise in bold type.
Example: emphasis with bold type
“The quick brown *fox* jumps over the *lazy* dog” becomes: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
3
Italicise text
Enter an underscore on either side of the word(s) you want emphasise in italics type.
“The quick brown _fox_ jumps over _the lazy dog_” becomes: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
4
Strikethrough text
Enter the squiggly line symbol on either side of the word(s) you want emphasise in italics type.
“The quick brown ~fox~ jumps over ~the lazy dog~” becomes: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
5
Add a WhatsApp group to your homescreen
If, like me, you’re a member of a stack of WhatsApp groups alongside chats with indvidual people of varying degrees of interest you might want to be able to access a group or a person quickly from your homepage.
Android users can add a WhatsApp group (or person) easily to their homepage.
Search through your groups > Long press on the image for that group > In the top right hand corner of the screen press on the three dots > Press “Add chat shortcut”
6
Backup WhatsApp chats
Never lose your chat threads, even if you lose your phone. Back up all your information in the Cloud. Choose when you want to perform a backup, too. Perform a manual backup or select daily, weekly or monthly backups.
Settings > Chats > Chat Backup
7
Find important messages easily
Don't lose the important messages in a sea of chatter. Mark the messages you think you'll need to reference later.
Find message > hold your finger down on the message until the message turns blue > select the star icon from the menu at the top of the screen.
When you need to retrieve these important messages go to the three vertical dots in the top right of the screen and click on ‘starred messages’.
Select the three vertical dots in the top right of the screen > Click on 'starred messages'.
Pro tip
Try using this function to share the same information that you're often asked for, like an address. On homepage of WhatsApp select the three vertical dots > Click on Starred messages > Long press the starred message you want to share > On the menu at the top of the screen press the arrow pointing to the right > Select the contact you want to share this message with > press send.
8
Make a video call
Select a contact > open up conversation thread > select video icon from the menu at the top of the screen.
9
Make a phone call
Don't want to appear in front of the camera? Worried you might have spinach between your teeth? No problem, you can use WhatsApp to make a voice-only phone call to one of your contacts.
Select a contact > open up conversation thread > select the phone icon from the menu at the top of the screen.
10
Remove the 'read' feature
WhatsApp tells you once a message has been successfully sent by including a blue tick. You know when your message has been read because double blue ticks will appear next to your message. Sometimes you need to think carefully about the tone and the information for your response. At other times you might read the messages but need to attend to other matters for responding. It can be a real drag do
WhatsApp tells you once a message has been successfully sent by including a blue tick. You know when your message has been read because double blue ticks will appear next to your message. Sometimes you need to think carefully about the tone and the information for your response. At other times you might read the messages but need to attend to other matters for responding. It can be a real drag do
Avoid such messages by removing the 'read' feature.
Settings > Account > Privacy > Read Receipts
NOTE: If you turn off read receipts, you won’t be able to see read receipts from other people. Read receipts are always sent for group chats.
11
Remove the 'last seen' feature
Sometimes you don’t want to be disturbed by contacts on some threads but you need to keep a listening watch on other WhatsApp groups. Your pub quiz group called ‘Agatha Quiztie’ is meeting up at 19:30 this week rather than the usual 19:45 can you make it?’ If you don't want to disclose that you're currently active on WhatsApp you can remove the 'last seen' feature by following this WhatsApp hack:
Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen
12
Resurface a contact's comment
“I never said that …” . No one likes a smartarse, but occasionally it’s helpful to find messages back in a thread and remind the person of what was agreed. Instead of taking a screen grab and pasting that back to them use this WhatsApp hack:
Select the contact > scroll through the chat thread until you find the message > long press the message > select whether to send the message again to the thread or forward it to someone else.
13
Mute a group
There are times when we feel it's time to bow out of a WhatsApp group. Sure, you can leave the group altogether. Alternatively, try muting the comments temporarily. Use this time to crack on with work ... or calm down after reading pages of inane chatter.
Choose to mute a group or a contact for eight hours, a week, or go the whole hog and mute for a full year.
Select a WhatsApp group (or contact) > click on the three vertical dots in the top right-hand corner > click on mute > select your time period.
14
Documents, images and audio files
As well as sending weblinks you can also share documents, images and audio files with groups and individual contacts.
Select a contact > click on the paper clip > select the media type
15
Video messaging
Select a contact > click on the paper clip > select the camera icon > hold for video
16
Gifs
Grab a contact’s attention by creating a gif and sending it to them.
Select a contact > click on the camera image to the right of the message area > At the bottom of the screen press the circle area and hold for video (tap for a photo) > shoot a few seconds of video > Crop the beginning and end sequence of the video by selecting frame-by-frame > press the gif button > add a caption
17
Share location
Arranged to meet someone and they can’t find where you are? Send them a Google map easily straight from WhatsApp.
Select a contact > click on the paper clip > select location
WhatsApp will send your current location as a Google map to your contact.
Pro tip
If you plan to use this location again for meeting people star this message (see hack number 7) so that find it again easily and forward the map to others without having to be at the location.
18
Check groups for who's read your message and when
Select a group > Select a message you have sent to that group> Long press on that message > click on the info icon at the top of the screen
Here you’ll see a list of people who’ve read your comment and at what time they read it.
19
Delete and revoke messages sent in error
Sent a message to the wrong group chat? Messaged the wrong information by mistake? You now have 7 minutes to delete or revoke the message and either send it to the right place or make sure it's accurate.
Messages you successfully delete for everyone will be replaced with "This message was deleted" in your recipients' chats (*). Similarly, if you see "This message was deleted" in a chat, it means that the sender deleted their message for everyone.
Open WhatsApp > Select a message you wish to delete > Long press on that message > Choose delete from the menu > Tap delete > Delete for Everyone
20
Share content that disappears after 24 hours
Open WhatsApp > Select a message you wish to delete > Long press on that message > Choose delete from the menu > Tap delete > Delete for Everyone
WhatsApp now allows you to share text, photos, videos and animated GIFs that disappear after 24 hours with its Status feature. In order to send and receive status updates to and from your contacts, both you and your contacts must have each other's phone numbers saved in your address book.
To view someone's status update, tap the Status tab and select a contact's status. To reply to one of your contact's status updates, tap Reply at the bottom of the screen while viewing their status.
Your status updates cannot be seen by people whose numbers are not saved in your phone's address book. You can choose to share your status updates with all of your contacts, or with selected contacts only. By default, your status updates are set to be shared with all your contacts.
You can read more about updating your status privacy to enable the Status feature here.
21
Share Live Location
WhatsApp has longed enabled you to share your location by attaching a link to Google Maps. The Live Location feature lets people know where you are in real time. A nice idea for letting contacts know exactly where you are at a conference. Or, for reassuring loved ones that you got home safely.
The Live Location feature allows you to share your real-time location for a specific amount of time. You can choose to share your live location with the participants of a group chat or with just one contact via an individual chat. You need to turn on Location and give WhatsApp location permission in your phone's settings.
You can control whether and how long to share your live location. You can also stop sharing your live location at any time.
Open a chat > Tap attach > Location > Share live location> Select the length of time you'd like to share your live location. Your live location will stop being shared after a selected amount of time > Tap sen
Note: You can turn off your phone's Location permission at any time by going to your phone's settings. Click here to read more about the Live Location feature.
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