By Philip C. Whatsapp is an overwhelmingly popular instant messaging app that most Singaporeans are using nowadays. It has pretty much rendered the SMS (Short Message Service) obsolete. Here at TechOut, we will share with you 7 features you might not know about Whatsapp! 1. Formatting Your Messages WhatsApp allows you to make formatting changes to your messages. This can help you to express yourself in that group chat with your old classmates, to beautify that customary festive greeting to your clients, among many other uses. You can italicize, bold or strikethrough (cross out) selected text. To italicize your message, place an underscore on both sides of the text, like so: _text_ To bold your message, place an asterisk on both sides of the text, like so: *text* To s̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ your message, place a tilde on both sides of the text, like so: ~text~ Note: There is no option to disable this feature. 2. Read Receipts, Tips and Tricks Whatsapp allows you to see if the other party has read your messages to them. This is especially helpful if you suspect that someone might be ignoring you(The horror!). When you send out your message, there will be a tick beside your message. If you see 1 tick, this means that your message has been sent out, but the other party has not received it on their phone yet (their phone might not be turned on, or have access to the internet). If you see 2 ticks, it means that the other party has received your message, but has not read it yet. If you see 2 blue ticks next to your sent message, then the recipient has read your message. In a group chat or broadcast message, the ticks will turn blue when every participant has read your message. For any message that you send, you will be able to see a Message info screen, displaying the details of when your message was delivered, read or played by the recipient(s). To see the Message info screen: Open a chat with a contact or a group. Tap and hold on your sent message. Tap the info button. The Message info screen shows: Delivered when your message is delivered to your recipient's phone, but the recipient has not yet seen it. Read or Seen when the recipient has read your message or seen your picture, audio file, or video. For a Voice Message, the recipient has seen but has not yet played it. Played when the recipient has played your Voice Message. Please note that when a participant leaves a group, the Message info screen will still show the original information with all participants, including the participant who left the group. If you do not see 2 blue ticks next to your sent message, it may be one of many reasons: -The recipient may not have opened your conversation. -The recipient may be using an outdated version of WhatsApp. -You or the recipient may be experiencing connection issues. -You or the recipient may have disabled Read Receipts in their privacy settings. Now, in a chat, when either of the parties have opted out of the Read Receipts feature, both of the parties will not receive the 2 blue ticks in their messages. To opt out of the Read Receipts feature, go to Settings > Account > Privacy and uncheck Read Receipts. Note: This will not disable the Read Receipts for Group Chats or Play Receipts for Voice Messages. There is no way to turn off these features. How To Cheat WhatsApp's read receipts and open a message without activating the blue ticks: When you receive a message that you don't want to reply to immediately, simply switch your phone to "Airplane Mode" before opening the message. This lets you peruse your WhatsApp messages to your heart's content, while the sender is left none the wiser. The app on their phone will continue to show two grey ticks, indicating that the message is still unread. Just make sure that, when you've finished, you close WhatsApp before switching off Airplane Mode. This way, the message will continue to appear unread until you choose to open it again. 3. Quick Quotes WhatsApp has the ability to quote messages you want to reply to, which is especially useful for group chats with friends or family. To quote a previous message in a reply, users just need to long press on the text, and next to the existing buttons for starring/deleting/copying will be an arrow for replying. Tapping this will quote the message, displaying it alongside your reply. 4. Broadcast Lists With the Broadcast List feature, you can send a message to several of your friends at once. Broadcast Lists are saved lists of message recipients that you can repeatedly send broadcast messages to without having to select them each time. To create a Broadcast List:
This will create a new Broadcast List. When you send a message to the Broadcast List, it will send to all recipients in the list who have your number saved in their phones' address book. The recipients will receive the message as a normal message. When they reply, it will appear as a normal message in your Chats screen; their reply will not be sent to other recipients in the Broadcast List. 5. Starred Messages The Starred Messages feature allows you to highlight and pin a specific message so you can quickly refer back to it later. To star a message: 1. Tap and hold the message you wish to star. 2. Tap the Star icon that appears on top of the screen. To unstar a message: 1. Tap and hold the message. 2. Select the remove Star icon. Note: Removing the star will not delete the message. To view the list of messages you've starred: Open WhatsApp. Tap on the Menu Button. Tap on Starred messages. 6. Saving Data and Storage Space Ever encounter Whatsapp taking HUGE amounts of storage on your phone, and using up most of your mobile data? That is probably because you have not changed your settings for your Whatsapp. To save on data requirements:
7. Using Whatsapp On Your Computer Whatsapp can also be linked to your computer for you to access its services without having to pick up your phone. This is useful as if there are any images, documents, links or videos that you want to send quickly, you can do so with this feature. Typing with a keyboard is also loads better than typing on the small keyboard on your phone.
To use WhatsApp Web: 1. Visit web.whatsapp.com on your computer. 2. Open WhatsApp on your phone. 3. On Android: in the Chats screen > Menu > WhatsApp Web.
5. From your phone, navigate to WhatsApp Web to view your logged in computers or to logout from an active WhatsApp Web session. Note: To avoid data usage charges on your phone, we recommend that you are always connected to Wi-Fi when using WhatsApp Web. You can also download Whatsapp’s desktop client for your computer on their website at www.whatsapp.com Did you learn anything new? What other features have we missed out? For more, don’t forget to like our Facebook page and get notified of more content like this, lucky draws, videos and many more! |