WhatsApp is the most popular messaging application today, with Facebook Messenger as a direct rival. Currently, we rarely find a smartphone that has not installed this application.
In addition to being a messaging application, WhatsApp has evolved into an application that does much more than that. Now you can make voice calls, video calls, and even group calls.
Over the last few months, there have been many new features that have been implemented. But the developer’s team is not going to ‘get in the shade of the banana’, as there is still a lot of news in the testing phase.
Regardless of being one of the most popular applications ever and being used by many millions of users per day, there are always little tricks that you end up passing next.
That’s why I came here to introduce you to a list of 5 tips that will help you get the most out of this application.
Table of Contents
1. Do not let anyone know when you were online
One of the great strengths of WhatsApp is the level of privacy it offers to your users’ messages. However, there are some settings that may share too much information with your contacts.
As you may have noticed, most of the time under the name of your contacts, you can know when was the last time they were active. But, it could be a great inconvenience in several situations.
To disable this option you will only need to follow these simple steps:
- Press the button to access the Menu (three dots in the upper right corner)
- Then go to Settings
- Opens the Account section
- Click on the Privacy tab
- Finally, click on “Last seen“
2. Do not feel obligated to reply to messages!
One feature that we have become accustomed to in many applications is the ability to know when messages are received and also read. This simple notification can often bring added responsibilities.
Of course, you will not always want the person who sent you a message to see you to the east. Once you leave unconscious pressure present for you to respond.
Eliminate this unwanted pressure by disabling this feature. However, remember that this way you will not be able to know when your messages have been read.
To do this, just follow the steps below:
- Press the button to access the Menu (three dots in the upper right corner)
- Then go to Settings
- Opens the Account section
- Click on the Privacy tab
- Finally, click on “Read receipts“
3. Leave your main chats a click away
In addition to the conversations with your friends and family, in WhatsApp, it has become very habitual to have also several group chats. Sometimes the amount of active conversation is so great that it can even become confusing and you can quickly access the most important ones for you.
So your best bet is to create a shortcut to each of the conversations that are most important to you. This way, you will be able to access the most used chats with just one click.
Follow the steps below to create your first shortcut:
- Long click on the chat you want to create the shortcut
- Press the button to access the Menu (three dots in the upper right corner)
- Finally, click on “Create shortcut for conversation“
4. Use different writing styles to ‘give life’ to your messages
Although the giant evolution of the so popular emojis has helped immensely to add emotion and a greater expressivity to the messages. However, sometimes the simple use of a different style in the letter can help immensely to personalize a little more what you mean, the way you mean.
For this, you can use simple ‘codes’ in your messages so that the text appears in a different style:
- Bold: put an asterisk (*) at the beginning and end of the sentence, * example *
- Italic: puts an underscore (_) at the beginning and end of the phrase, _example_
- Strikethrough: put a tilde (~) at the beginning and end of the sentence, ~ example ~
5. Respond to a specific message much faster!
In groups where many people are present, you often need to respond to a particular message that has been sent for some time. In order to make all interaction more natural and less confusing, WhatsApp has implemented the ability to respond to a message by clicking on the message you want to respond to.
However, a new yet simpler way of responding to messages has been quite discreetly implemented. Instead of the long click, you’ll just need to slide the message to the right and the whole process will be automatic. This is a tip that was undoubtedly extremely helpful to me!
I hope these tips will help you get even more out of the time you spend exchanging messages with your friends and family through WhatsApp. Although many of them are simple tips, I have no doubt that some may go unnoticed by many users.