Eight things you didn’t know you could do with WhatsApp

Many people turn to other apps to create typographic styles such as bold or strike-through to make their WhatsApp messages more elaborate. However, this can lead to your WhatsApp account being suspended, so it’s not perhaps the best idea.

There is a simple way to add typography to your messages using the app itself.

All you need to do is add a couple of symbols at the start and the end of the word or phrase that you would like to change, and you’ll have the desired effect.

Take a look at these examples:

• Use the symbol ‘underscore’ ( _ )  to make your text italic

• Use the symbol ‘sim’ (~) to add strikethrough to your text

• Use the symbol ‘asterisk’ (*) to make your text bold.

An example: to send the message ‘WhatsApp is cool’ in bold you need to write *WhatsApp is Cool* - using the asterisk symbol at the beginning and end of the phrase.

Normally you’ll hear the same sound each time you receive a message on WhatsApp, regardless of who it’s from. But, did you know that you can customise your sounds so you’ll receive a different tone for each contact?

Changing the tone for each contact will allow you to identify who’s messaging you, without having to look at your phone immediately, quite handy if you’re busy and need to decipher important messages from the more trivial ones.

To change the tone of a particular contact you need to:

1. Open a conversation with the person or group you want to put a personalised tone on and touch the name at the top of the screen.

2. Tap Custom ringtone and choose a new ringtone from the list that appears.

3. Once you’ve selected the tone, press on the ‘save’ button in the upper right corner to make sure the changes are applied.

Once this is done, all messages, voice notes or files you receive from that contact group will make a selected sound instead of the default tone from WhatsApp.

There’s probably been times when you’ve been scrolling through messages, looking for something specific and you just cannot put your hands on what you are looking for.

WhatsApp has the capacity to search messages for you. If you have a specific word or phrase to mind, you can search through all your conversations in your chat list.

To access the WhatsApp search engine, all you have to do is open the ‘Chats’ tab and slide the conversations from top to bottom. In doing so you will see that just above the buttons of ‘Broadcast lists’ and ‘Create group’ button a search engine box appears.

To locate your desired message you need to type what you’re looking for into the search engine box. WhatsApp will then show you all the messages from with the relevant words or phrases in all conversations and groups you have in your chat list.

This trick is similar to the first in our list of useful WhatsApp tips. You can change the character font from the default WhatsApp typeface to FixedSys style using backquotes (backwards facing apostrophe).

By typing three backquotes (```) at the beginning of the word or phase you’d like to change, and then again at the end of the word or phase - you will unlock the ‘FixedSys’ style font. The easiest way of finding the backquote on an iPhone is to hold down the apostrophe key and slide to the left and select the correct symbol (`).

Changing the font on your messages will ensure they stand out, something especially useful in group chats where there is a lot of activity. If you’ve got something important to say, using this WhatApp trick might help make sure your message is read.

WhatsApp offers an official way to contact an unsaved number, not just within the app. This can be particularly useful if you need to contact someone, and do not wish to save their number. It is also useful when typing long messages or have multiple conversations. While these actions are possible to do on your phone, sometimes it’s easier to do this using a larger screen.

To use this WhatApp function on your computer, first open your internet browser (Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer etc…) and make sure you have WhatsApp downloaded on your computer. Once you’ve downloaded the programme, follow the setup instructions on the screen, and then you’ll be ready to go. 

Type the following URL into the address bar: https://wa.me/XXXXXXX, replacing the Xs with the phone number that you want to message. Make sure you use the country code and miss out the +, for example if number is from the UK you should use use 44XXXXXXXXX.

Once you’ve entered the url, a window will open asking if you would like to open WhatsApp. Select ‘yes’ and then the app window will open automatically with the conversation corresponding to the chosen phone number and you’ll able to beginning messaging.

Fed up of only being able to access WhatsApp from your phone? There’s a way of keeping in touch with your WhatsApp contacts using your computer or tablet. 

To use WhatsApp on a computer, to go: https://web.whatsapp.com  and follow the instructions on screen (this should include a QR code on screen). To link your WhatsApp to the computer you will need your phone to hand. Open WhatsApp on your phone and go settings, and then select ‘WhatsApp web’, and then hover your phone over the QR code which will appear on your computer screen. 

Once you’ve synced your phone to the computer, you will be able to login and chat on WhatsApp using your computer, which may be more comfortable than using your phone. However, you must ensure you phone is switched on and connected to the internet to use this function.

By default, WhatsApp will save all media files you receive to your camera roll.

If you want to stop this from happening, you need to open WhatsApp and go to Settings - select the ‘Chats’ tab and deactivate the ‘Save to Camera Roll’. From that point, files will no longer be saved automatically. You will however be able to manually save media files, when you wish.

In both individual and group chats it is possible to see the exact moment that someone has read your message. 

To see when a specific message was read, place your finger over the desired message and slide your finger over it, moving from right to left. By doing this WhatsApp will show you the exact moment when the message was delivered (received by the other person) and also read.

However, with regards to individual chats, you will not be able to see this ‘read’ data if the person has turned off their ‘read receipts’.