by WhatsApp is an incredibly popular communication tool that helps us stay connected with friends and family. However, it has so many hidden features that can help you customize and personalize your experience. From privacy options to fun ways to modify your messages and chats, here’s a bunch of tips you can use to take full control of your WhatsApp.
1. Who’s Your WhatsApp Bestie?
Can you say for sure who your WhatsApp bestie is? Who’s that special person you talk to the most? Here’s an easy way to find out:
- Go to Settings and find Storage and Data.
- Tap on Manage Storage.
- Here, you’ll see a list of contacts at the bottom. Their order will tell you which contacts take up the most storage, meaning the most messages.
2. Disable Read Receipts
As you probably know, when you type a message and send it, you can see whether the person has read it or not thanks to the two annoying ticks that can make anyone self-conscious. By default, when you receive a message, there are two gray ticks, which turn blue when the person reads the message.
If you don’t want someone to see you’ve read their message, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings, then Account, and tap on Privacy.
- Toggle off Read Receipts.
Now people won’t know when you’ve read their message, but remember, it goes both ways. The ticks on all messages will remain gray forever, and you won’t be able to tell when someone has read your messages either. But at least no one will ever be left on read again.
3. Customize Your Status Privacy
Speaking of privacy, if you don’t want to share your WhatsApp status with the entire world, you can select who gets to see it:
- Go to Account, then Privacy, and tap on Status.
- Here, you can choose the specific contacts that you want to share your status with.
- You can either select only a few people or allow all your contacts to see your status except for those you’d like to hide it from.
4. Hide Last Seen Time
If you don’t want to share when you were last seen on WhatsApp, here’s how to hide it:
- In the Privacy menu, select Last Seen.
- You can choose Nobody or specify who gets to see when you were last online.
5. Text Formatting Tips
Want to make your messages stand out? Here’s how you can format your text:
- To make text bold, put an asterisk at the beginning and end of the word or sentence.
- To make text italic, put an underscore on either side of the text.
- To strike through text, add a tilde to the beginning and end.
If that seems too complicated, there’s an easier way to do it:
- Highlight the passage you want to modify, then press the formatting icon and choose from bold, italic, strikethrough, or monospace.
6. Quickly Reply to Older Messages
Sometimes group chats can flood with new messages, and you might want to quickly respond to older ones. Here’s a way to do that:
- Choose the message you need to reply to and swipe right on it.
- This will instantly create a reply window, allowing you to respond to old messages and bring them to the surface of your conversation.
7. See Who’s Read Your Group Messages
Want to know for sure who has read your group messages? Here’s how:
- Hold on to your message and highlight it.
- Then press Info.
- You’ll now be able to see when your message was delivered to each person’s device and who has or hasn’t viewed it.
8. Customize Your Chat Wallpaper
WhatsApp gives you several wallpaper options for your chats. Here’s how to customize them:
- While in the chat, tap on the contact name.
- Tap Wallpaper and Sound, and then choose a new wallpaper.
- You can browse the wallpaper options or select any photo from your storage to set as the background.
- You can also set a custom notification sound for each chat. Just press here and scroll through tons of different sounds to choose from.
9. Play With Your Photos
Did you know WhatsApp lets you play with your photos in chat? Here’s how:
- Press the camera icon and choose a picture.
- At the top of the screen, you’ll see a toolbar. The smiley face is the emoji and sticker menu.
- You can add any emoji, adjust its size and angle, and even change the skin tone.
- Tap and hold the emoji to select the color you want.
To add text, press the T at the top of the screen. By default, the text will look like this, but you can change the font and color by pressing the T multiple times.
10. Draw on Your Photos
If you want to customize your photo even further, you can play with the line thickness:
- First, tap the pencil icon, then tap and hold the color palette until the pencil icon turns into a dot.
- Now keep your finger on the screen and swipe right or left to increase or decrease the size. This is especially useful if you want to draw a detailed sketch.
11. Use Stickers and GIFs
Aside from emojis, you also have access to stickers in chat:
- Press the sticker icon on the right.
- Press the plus icon to browse new stickers that will enrich your library.
- You can also switch to GIFs and enjoy the same customization options with your photos and stickers.
12. Make Messages Disappear After 7 Days
WhatsApp lets you make your messages disappear automatically after a set period:
- While in chat, press on the name of the contact and scroll down.
- You’ll see Disappearing Messages, where you can choose to make messages disappear after 1, 7, or 90 days.
13. Add WhatsApp Contacts to Your Home Screen
You can add WhatsApp contacts to your home screen for quick access. Here’s how:
- Open the Shortcuts app on your phone.
- Press the plus symbol and then Add Action.
- Go to Apps and select WhatsApp.
- Choose an action like Send Message via WhatsApp and add the recipient or group chat.
- Press the blue icon and then Add to Home Screen.
- Customize the shortcut name and press Add.
14. Bonus Tip: Fun with Texting
Finally, type one two three in chat, and you’ll get notified every time a certain person starts thinking about texting you.
Just kidding! Let’s hope technology like that is never invented. But I hope you’ve enjoyed the rest of these tips to fully take control of your WhatsApp experience.
By utilizing these tips and tricks, you can transform your WhatsApp experience into something uniquely suited to you!
Conclusion
WhatsApp is more than just a messaging app – it’s a powerful tool with a variety of features that can be customized to fit your personal style and preferences. From privacy settings that give you full control over who sees your information to fun ways of customizing your chats with emojis, wallpapers, and stickers, these hidden features can significantly enhance your experience. Whether you’re looking to keep your chats secure, make your messages stand out, or simply streamline your conversations, there’s something for everyone. Try out these tips and tricks to make your WhatsApp experience more enjoyable and personalized!
