10 Essential WhatsApp Tips and Tricks You Should Know
WhatsApp Hacks
WhatsApp has revolutionized the way we communicate globally. Do you remember when you last sent an SMS to your friend or family member? It’s hard to recollect when you used your smartphone's SMS feature.
You also receive SMSs from your bank, mobile service provider, promotional, or utility service providers. Even for formal communication with our boss in the office, we use the office WhatsApp group.
With features, WhatsApp has become a popular mobile messaging app favored by two billion monthly active users worldwide. This Meta-owned app allows people to message, call, and video chat with anyone, on any device, for free.
WhatsApp Tips and Tricks
There are lots of features available on WhatsApp. You must know most of the features if you have been using them for a long time. For a new user, discussing all the features here will be overwhelming. Therefore, I will talk about the ten essential features of WhatsApp that every user should know about.
Send Messages that Disappear
Disappearing messages will be deleted automatically after a certain period. This ensures that your message is not saved or forwarded without your consent or knowledge. The options for disappearing messages are after 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days.
You can enable it for specific conversations with anyone you choose or all your contacts.
However, the message preview will remain viewable in the notifications panel until you open the app, even if the time lapses for the message period. Here are the steps to turn on the disappearing messages option. For any particular contact:
Open the WhatsApp chat you want to use disappearing messages on.
Click on the contact’s name.
Click on “disappearing messages.”
Select your preferred duration.
For all contacts:
Open Settings.
Tap Account, then go to Privacy.
Select the Default message timer and then select your preferred duration.
Once enabled, you will be notified in the chat box that the disappearing messages are turned on.
Customize Your Chat Wallpaper
WhatsApp allows you to add a prettier aesthetic to all your WhatsApp chats or set specific wallpapers for chats with different people. You can have the option to choose between dark or light-mode wallpapers.
In the dark mode, you can dim your wallpaper to make it easier on your eyes. The steps to change the wallpaper for all chats are as follows:
Tap on the three vertical dots to view more options and click on “settings.”
Click on “chats” and then “wallpaper.”
Alter the wallpaper dimming level to your preference.
To change the wallpaper altogether, click “change.”
Choose from available WhatsApp templates of bright, dark, or solid colors, choose one from your photo gallery, or opt for the default WhatsApp wallpaper.
Click “set wallpaper” to save your changes.
To change the wallpaper for a specific chat, follow these steps:
Open the chat you want to customize the wallpaper for.
Tap on the three vertical dots to view more options, and click ”wallpaper.”
Change the wallpaper dimming level as per your choice.
Click on “change” to update the wallpaper picture and select from available WhatsApp images or an image from your photo gallery.
Tap on “set wallpaper” to save the changes.
Turn Off Automatic Media Download
The pictures and videos you receive from your WhatsApp chats are automatically downloaded to your phone’s gallery. Now, most of these images and videos are not required after viewing. Therefore, to free your phone’s storage, you must delete them. Deleting them manually is a time-consuming process.
So, to avoid this, WhatsApp allows you to turn off media auto-download and keep WhatsApp media from your gallery altogether. To do so, go to settings and then storage and data. Under the media auto-download section, you’ll get options to change the settings for three modes:
When using mobile data
When connected to WiFi
When roaming
Specify the content you want to download automatically. You can enable this for photos, audio files, videos, and documents.
Pin a Chat to Your Homepage
If there are specific contacts with whom you communicate frequently, then you can pin their chat to your homepage instead of wasting time scrolling through the list. However, you can only pin up to three chats (including groups). To pin a chat on iPhone, swipe right on the chat and click on the pin icon. On Android phones, select and hold the chat you want to pin, and then tap on the pin chat icon on the action bar.
Read Messages Without Opening WhatsApp
You can use this trick to read new WhatsApp messages without unlocking your phone and opening WhatsApp. The hack is to turn on notifications. Here are the steps to do so:
Open WhatsApp and click on “settings,” then “notifications.”
Toggle on “use high priority notifications.”
Now, when you receive WhatsApp messages, they will appear as message previews which you can check without opening WhatsApp. Unless you open WhatsApp to read the message, the recipient will not know you’ve read it, even if read receipts are turned on.
Disable Saving Photos and Videos By Default
All the videos and photos you receive on WhatsApp are saved by default on your phone’s photo gallery. You can disable this autosave feature if this is taking up space and cluttering up your own photos.
On iPhone, open Settings > Chats and turn off Save to Camera Roll.
On Android, open Settings> Chats and turn off Media Visibility.
Receive Custom Notifications
Are you getting the same alert sound for every incoming message on WhatsApp? To save yourself from frequently checking your phone and getting annoyed at seeing an unwanted message or joke from any contact, you can set custom alerts for essential contacts. This will make it easier to know who messaged you without picking up your phone.
On an iPhone, tap on the contact's name when viewing a chat thread, and then tap on Custom Tone. Choose a tone of your choice.
Android users should tap on the Menu icon when viewing a chat thread, followed by View Contact > Custom Notifications, check the box, and then finish setting it up.
Save Your Mobile Data
Suppose you've got limited mobile data and don't want WhatsApp to consume it all away. In that case, you can customize when media is allowed to download and ensure that WhatsApp audio or video calls use as little data as possible.
Navigate to Settings. Tap on Storage and Data and then on Media Auto-Download. Now switch to Wi-Fi only for each option to save your mobile data.
Send Disappearing Images or Videos
WhatsApp allows you to send an image or video that disappears once the recipient has viewed it once. This is great for photos of sensitive information shared with family or friends. When the recipient closes your picture, it will disappear, though remember, they can screenshot it.
Here is how you can send disappearing images or videos:
On iPhones, go to a specific chat, tap on the "+" next to the message input field and choose 'Camera' to take a photo or 'Photo & Video Library' to select a photo. Now choose the photo. Tap on the "1" next to the blue send arrow and press the blue arrow to send.
On Android phones, go to the specific chat. Tap on the paperclip next to the message input field, and choose 'Camera' to take a photo or 'Gallery' to select a photo. Choose the photo, and tap on the "1" next to the blue send arrow. Press the blue arrow to send.
Make Siri Read Your Last WhatsApp Message, Reply or Send a New Message
iPhone users can get Siri to read any unread WhatsApp messages by giving Siri access to WhatsApp. You can also get Siri to reply to the message with your voice or start a new message to a contact.
Here are the steps to do so. Say, "Hey Siri, read my last WhatsApp message", or "Hey Siri, send a WhatsApp message to [contact]" and read out the message to be sent.
Final Thoughts
WhatsApp is a convenient, secure, and free-to-use messaging app. However, most of us are unaware that it can do much more than send text messages. Hopefully, this article will help you explore other dimensions of WhatsApp. If I have missed any of your favorite WhatsApp tricks, let me know in the comments.
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