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WhatsApp is one of the world’s most popular messaging apps – it’s claimed to have around 2 billion active users in 2024. We wouldn’t be wrong if we said most of us use its service on a daily basis.
Even so, we’ve noticed that rarely does anyone use its many features to the fullest. We’re certain that many of its users aren’t even aware of everything the app has to offer.
So, in this article, we’ll talk about our favorite WhatsApp features, hacks, and tips we believe everyone should know!
1. Muting a conversation
We’ve all been there: you’re having a hectic day at work, all you want is to get things done and avoid potential distractions, and your phone just won’t stop ringing. Everyone seems so incredibly chatty all of a sudden!
The constant ringing is annoying, but you can’t put your phone on silent because you’re expecting an important business call… What to do? Well, WhatsApp has a feature that can solve this problem entirely!
If you’re an Android user, all you have to do is to long-press the conversation that’s been distracting you, and you’ll get the option to mute it! IOs users can swipe to the left to access the same option.
2. Media files don’t have to be stored on your phone
Nobody has infinite storage on their phone. Getting the „memory is full“ notification can be quite annoying, especially when you’re trying to download something.
By default, the pictures, gifs, and videos sent to you via WhatsApp are stored in your phone’s gallery. This can consume a large batch of your phone’s storage – something you probably want to avoid.
Luckily, WhatsApp developers are well aware of this issue. That’s why there’s an option to disable storing media files in your gallery!
It can also be done for individual conversations, so don’t hesitate to check it out!
3. Disappearing messages
Disappearing messages are a useful feature you can use to „time bomb“ your WhatsApp convos. To access it, press on the person’s name (or the group chat’s title) and scroll until you see the option of enabling this feature. Currently, you can choose 3 separate timers: keep your messages for 24h, 7 days, or 90 days. Every participant in the conversation can change these settings.
This is particularly useful for those who’re concerned about storage and privacy. The only thing you should keep in mind is that there are ways to save your messages even when you use these settings in your WhatsApp conversations.
4. Remove the blue ticks
Nobody likes to be left on read. If you have the habit of „ghosting“ people on accident, we advise you to disable those blue ticks on WhatsApp as soon as you can – it is a feature and a pretty useful one at that!
If you’re an Android user: press Settings, then Account, Privacy, and Untick Read Receipts. For iOs users, the procedure is the same, but the final option is instead called „Toggle off Read Receipts“.
You won’t ever leave anyone on read ever again, but you won’t know if someone has done it to you either! It’s a double-edged sword, but it’s still quite useful in certain scenarios.
5. Hide your profile photo
We’ve all been a part of a large group chat on WhatsApp before. In many of those chats, there could be people we don’t know all that well.
If you’re not comfortable sharing your photos with strangers and semi-strangers (which is perfectly normal), you can always hide it from them! No matter if you use Android or iOs, you can
tap the Settings > Account > Privacy > Profile Photo and choose who can see your profile picture – your contacts, everyone, or no one at all.
As noted at whatsapp-gb.blog.br, this app is all about privacy. Don’t hesitate to use its robust features to protect yourself and your identity online.
6. Italic, bold, and strikethrough
Did you know you can use italic, bold, and strikethrough font styles in your texts on WhatsApp? It’s quite simple as well!
For italic, all you need to do is add the “_“ symbol on both sides of the text you want to convert to this style. So, it would be _italic_. For bold, you’d do “*“ instead (*bold*). Finally, we have “~“ for ~strikethrough~.
7. Find out who’s your favorite WhatsApp friend!
If you go to Settings > Storage and Data > Manage Storage on both iOs and Android, you’ll be able to see your lists of contacts in order of who uses the most of your storage. It’s a certain way to determine the person you talk to the most on this app!
Of course, this feature can also be used to free up your storage and get rid of those large files you don’t need anymore – but that’s not as interesting as finding your WhatsApp bestie, now, is it?
8. WhatsApp has a PC version
For those users who utilize WhatsApp for business purposes, having access to a PC version has been a real-life-saver. WA on the desktop is a whole new experience – we advise you to try it out. Setting it up is quite simple as well: download and install the PC version on your computer, open the menu with the QR code, scan it with your phone, and voila: all of your conversations are now on your PC!
You can find a detailed video tutorial online if the process of installing the app seems a bit confusing to you. Either way, we hope you try it out – it’s incredible!
The bottom line
All in all, WhatsApp has many interesting features you may be overlooking. In this short article, we’ve numbered a few we found to be the most useful.
However, this doesn’t mean this is all there is to the app! Play around with the settings, and you’ll quickly find everything you’ve been looking for and more.
Either way, we hope our article showed you how to use your favorite chatting app as efficiently as possible and we wish you the best of luck in all of your future endeavors.
