Facebook-owned messaging service ‘WhatsApp’ is the most popular messaging app in the world as it also allows you to get in touch with your friends and family in a group video or voice chat. WhatsApp rolls out each and every feature after properly testing for efficiency and performance.
The messaging app recently added a few features, namely Fingerprint lock, Dark theme, group privacy controls, and more. The list of 2019 WhatsApp features also includes Netflix trailer in-app streaming support. We have done a separate story on top features that WhatsApp added in 2019, which you can check on our website. Besides, WhatsApp adds a lot of useful features to its Android and iOS apps to offer users a more pleasing experience and keep the engagement score high. But there are some WhatsApp features that you might not be aware of. Read on to find out the top 10 WhatsApp tricks, tips and features you should know in 2019.
Best WhatsApp tricks, tips and features for iOS and Android
With the help of Google Assistant, users can simply send instant text and voice messages via WhatsApp. You can just need to activate the voice assistant by saying “OK Google” or “Hey Google.” If you are unable to do so, you can access it using the Google app. It is important to note that your WhatsApp Messenger app must be installed on your phone. You can then ask Google Assistant to send a text or a voice message on Whatsapp to XXXX person. To read a message, you can ask the assistant to open the WhatsApp so that you read a message.
The introduction of the blue ticks feature was a good addition as it lets you know whether or not the recipient has read the text. In order to hide blue ticks, you just need to disable read receipts (aka the blue ticks). You can do the same by visiting Settings > Account > Privacy and unticking “Read receipts.” After hiding the blue ticks, your contacts won’t see when you’ve read their message. It is important to note that after disabling the blue ticks, you won’t be able to see when they’ve read your messages.
WhatsApp added a “Two-step verification” feature long time back. This is one of the most widely used security features, and it has been adopted by companies like Twitter, Instagram, Apple, LinkedIn, Google, and Microsoft to name a few. This feature basically adds an additional layer of authentication before giving one access to their account. To enable two-step verification, head over to Settings -> Account -> Two-step verification.
Once enabled, you will be asked to provide an email address and set a six-digit passcode. This passcode becomes the secondary layer of protection after entering your mobile number. In other words, if someone tries to access your WhatsApp account by entering your mobile number, they won’t be able to get far without entering the six-digit code. To ensure you don’t forget the important passcode, WhatsApp will periodically prompt you to enter your passcode.
This “Last seen” feature informs other WhatsApp users about our online activity. This includes if we are currently online and the time we were last online in case we are not currently online. More often then not, this feature is also associated with people checking if you have replied to their messages on WhatsApp in accordance to the last seen on the app.
Something that is quite easy to misinterpret and often a cause of misunderstanding. To stop the misunderstanding or even ensure personal privacy on WhatsApp, you just need to follow a few simple steps. Go to app’s settings, open “Account,” tap on “Privacy” and then “Last Seen.” Here you can hide it from your contacts or everyone. You can also choose the “Nobody” option.
WhatsApp has provided an option to save you mobile data. The company is aware of the fact that a user receives a lot of photos or videos in a group chat or separately. So you can save your mobile data in WhatsApp and still get notifications and messages. For this, you just need to disable the app’s ability to download media using the mobile data. For this, just head over to Settings > Data and storage usage > When using mobile data. Here you can tick or untick the downloading of photos, audio, videos, and documents via mobile data. The same is also the case with the Wi-Fi option.
To use this feature, simply tap on the attach button located next to the text bar on your chats. Under “Location” there will be a new option to ‘Share Live Location’. Selecting this will allow your friends and family to track you in real-time on a map. You can choose to set the duration for how long your location can be tracked on the map. Live Location is enabled for both single and group chats. In a group chat, more than one person can send their location at the same time. Once your Live Location is sent you can simply tap on “Stop Sharing”, which will be available just below your map card.
This one is very simple. If you want to make your text appear bold, you would be required to put a star (*) in the beginning and end of a text (Example: *Mango*). The same is also the case with italicizing and others. For italicizing, underscore (_) is used, for strikethrough the tilde symbol (~) is used, and (“`) for monospace.
Earlier this year, WhatsApp added a forwarding label to its app. You can check whether you have received this feature or not by forwarding a message or a file that has been forwarded multiple times before. Then, the messaging app will alert you with “forwarded many times” label. WhatsApp says when you forward a message, you can choose to share with up to five chats at one time. You can send a forwarded message or a photo without a forwarding label by rewriting the message. The forwarded photos that you have received, you need to download them first and then upload and send it to others instead of directly forwarding it.
If you want to unsend or delete a message, you simply need to open the chat window of the person. Then press and hold the message you want delete, you will notice a dustbin icon on the top side of the chat window. You need to tap on that icon to delete a particular message.
If the recipient of the message does not receive the delete request for the message in 13 hours, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds then the message will not be deleted. To simplify, if you sent a message to your friend and then you want to delete the message in the conversation, the message will not be deleted even after you have tapped on ‘Delete for Everyone’ if your friend does not receive the delete request in the above mentioned time.
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