Since the inception of Whatsapp in 2011, it has become one of fastest form of chatting in the world. People find it easier and more comfortable to use since all it requires is the other party’s phone number and you can chat, send audio, video, pictures and so on.
It even become much more popular after it was bought by the owner of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.
However, there are various shortcuts around the app which will make chatting easier, interesting and fun.
TO QUOTE A CERTAIN MESSAGE
You can now choose the particular message you want to respond to by directly quoting them. This seems more helpful in a group chat, where you want to reply a certain group member or you intend replying a particular message.
To do so, just hold down on the particular message, then press the arrow pointing to the left (next to the star), this will show that your message has been quoted then you can reply in the new typing space available. Cool, right?
BOLD / ITALICISE / STRIKETHROUGH WORDS
You can make bold, italicise and strikethrough your texts by following these simple methods. To make your text bold, just put an asterisk [*] at both sides of the word/sentence then it will automatically become bold. For example *eat yam*.
Then to italicise, all you have to do is to add an underscore [_] to either side of the word/sentence and voila! You have an italicised word/sentence. For example _beautiful city_. Also, to strikethrough, add a tilde [~] to both sides of the word/sentence. An example is~ I love you~. Nice, isn’t it?
SELECTING A PARTICULAR MEMBER IN A GROUP
One new feature added to Whatsapp Just type ‘@’ in any group you are in, and you will get all the members names on your screen instantly…….
Select the one you want to send a message to, and Bravo!!!.
MUTE A GROUP
There are certain times when we don’t want to silence or put our phone on vibration but our Whatsapp group message tone keeps disturbing. In a situation like this, don’t get too frustrated just hold down the desired group/chat, then select the speaker icon the strikethrough.
When the other menu pops up, asking you to set a duration to mute or not to show notification of the chat, you are free to choose for as long as eight hours, a week or even a year. Wonderful, yeah? Yeah.
STAR MESSAGES TO REFER TO LATER
To save a message for future reference, just hold down the particular message, then tap the star icon to add it to your ‘starred messages’ directory.
Then to be able to see your starred messages, tap the ellipsis (three dots) at the top right corner of the main menu and choose the particular message you need.
MANUAL BACK UP
Whatsapp has helped us a great deal by saving our chats to the cloud, but in a case where you lose your phone, all the information on it will be lost.’
Not to worry, you can manually save your own chat by going to the ‘settings’, then press the ‘chat’ option, ‘chat backup’, and hit the ‘backup’ button. This will help especially when you want to switch your phones.
Note. When doing it, ensure you are on Wi-Fi because it can be data consuming, and we won’t want our monthly subscription to get exhausted over saving of chat.
CHANGE OF NUMBER
Gone are the days when you lose your data just because you changed your phone number, because now you can change your phone number and still have all your information. How? By going to ‘settings’, ‘account’ and ‘change number’. A text or call (your choice) will be sent to you with a code which will confirm your new number is active then the process will be completed with all your data complete.
WHATSAPP WITH YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER
You can chat on Whatsapp through your Personal Computer (PC), and you are like, “isn’t Whatsapp just for phones?” Nah, you can also use your PC to chat while you allow your phone nap or lend your friend in the other state. Now you’re amazed and want to how.
All you have to do is to type ‘Whatsapp.com’ on your PC’s browser then click on the ‘Whatsapp Web’, a barcode will appear. Then press the ellipsis (three dots) on your phone, click on ‘Whatsapp Web’ a camera like appear, just place it at the front of the barcode on your PC and you have ‘got it’.
PRIVACY
You can be offline and your contacts will not be able to know the last time you were online but will only know when you are online. Then you can get to choose who will be able to see your profile pictures and status.
Simply go to ‘setting’ then click on ‘account, and press ‘privacy, then select if you want everyone to see when your last seen, profile picture and/or status.
Remember, if you don’t share your last seen, you won’t be able to see other people’s last seen.
You see? Life can be easier on Whatsapp with all these hacks. Kindly share this page on your
social networks so others can learn from this.