6 Hidden But Really Helpful WhatsApp Features

We can all agree that the developers at WhatsApp have been busy lately. We reported earlier about them testing the new ability to let you preview an audio clip on the notification panel when using an iPhone and new features to help make the platform, even more, friendlier than it is now.

However, there are some really handy features that are currently available that we haven’t fully harnessed and utilized. Here is the list of top six hidden WhatsApp features that can really be helpful.

Star a message to Read later 

Starring a message creates a convenient way to go back to a point in the chat history where someone shared an interesting article, address or contact which you would like to reference at some point at a later date.

To Star, a message is actually straight forward and you long-press on the message you would to star and then tap on the Star icon. Another fun fact is that you can actually Star a chat message even when you’re offline and browse through the maze of your chat history.

To view your starred messages, for Android users: they need to tap on the Menu button, then Starred Messages. For iPhone users, you tap on the contact info(saved named) and choose the option for the Starred messages and you’ll be able to access all the starred messages from your chat history.

Know Who you talk to the most 

It’s no doubt we spend most of our time on this green app to chat and catch up with lost friends through group activities. Despite all that it’s quite simple to forget who we really are talking to the most.

So are you curious about who your BFF is on WhatsApp? Both Android and iOS users can go to Settings > Data and Storage usage > Storage Usage and view the list of all data sent and received on WhatsApp.

The topmost texted or active groups are usually on top with the total bytes of data shared on the right-hand side. In case you’ve been wondering who usually drains your daily internet bundles, now you do know.

Get message Information and Details 

Privacy settings have always allowed us to tweak the platform features like status updates, last seen and tailored them to suits our ego.

Despite all that, there’s usually a hidden feature known as read receipts which usually comes active by default and helps us know the Read and Delivered receipts from other people.

Ever wonder what time a message was delivered or read? Android users can long-press on a message, then tap on the “info” icon at the top of your screen to see the message info. iOS users can simply swipe on the chat from right to left to see the time a message is delivered and read.

Now that unsolicited copies of WhatsApp like GBWhatsApp are going out of service, we all should be at par with following our message details and getting the correct info about it regardless.

Mute a conversation on WhatsApp

A few people actually take advantage of the mute feature on WhatsApp. You can use this feature to silence the chatty group conversation or an annoying colleague that doesn’t get the hint that you’re busy.

Android users can long-press on a chat, then tap on the crossed-out speaker icon at the top of the screen. iOS users, you can tap on the contact info(saved named) and choose the mute option.

WhatsApp provides the option to mute a chat from 8 hours to 1 year and 80% of groups I am in are muted for 1 year. I prefer to have notifications for only the group chats that matter and catch up with the rest later in the day when I have few tasks on my to-do list.

Customize group or individual notifications

Instead of having the same alert sound for every incoming message, you can set custom alerts for individual contacts or group conversations.

Doing so will make it easier to know who messaged you without looking at your phone and gauge if you really want to continue with the conversation or not.

For iPhone users to change the settings, you can tap the group or contact info( name of the group) and choose the Custom Tone options and simply change from the default tune.

The only caveat with this feature though is,  it’s really hard to keep tabs when you’ve it set for an array of people in your chat list and end up using the default tune to avoid confusion at the end of the day.

Keep in mind, if you have got a bunch of friends that really deserves special attention on the green app, then this is the way to go that extra mile.

Format message text before sending on WhatsApp 

WhatsApp lets you bold, italicize or strikethrough text on the fly. To do so, you’ll need to add a couple of special characters before and after whatever it is you want to format.

To bold text On WhatsApp, use an asterisk(*) before and after with no space in between the words you want bolded.

To Italicize text, use an underscore(_)  special character before and after the words(text) and finally to strikethrough a text, use the tildes(~) character before or after the sentence or text with no space between the special character and the word(sentence).