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Whatsapp has become an indispensable part of everyday life for many people. Overall, the messaging app belonging to the Facebook group has around 1.5 billion monthly active users worldwide. As a rule, they should know how to write text messages or send voice messages, but Whatsapp now offers many other functions. In the following, we want to show you some of these Whatsapp tricks and also go into the most crucial setting options.
Whatsapp: Bluetick and last online
Since 2014, blue ticks in a Whatsapp chat have shown that your counterpart has read the corresponding message. This is a handy feature, especially when it comes to telling someone something that doesn’t require a direct response. But unfortunately, there are those incorrigible contemporaries who don’t want to see that you can’t or don’t always want to react immediately to one of their messages. For them, a blue tick is an open invitation to ask questions or even to criticize why they don’t get an answer to their message.
Blue ticks indicate that your Whatsapp message has been read. (Screenshot: Whatsapp Web)
Anyone who is in contact with such people can consider simply deactivating the blue tick. To do this, go to Settings > Account > Privacy and disable read receipts. But beware: You will no longer see if someone has read your messages. In addition, in the same menu, you can also ensure that WhatsApp no longer displays when you were last online. Although you should note here that you will still be displayed online if you are. Only the time of your last Whatsapp use is no longer displayed to your contacts.
Whatsapp trick for more peace: This is how you mute group chats
Loved and Hated: Group chats provide an easy way to connect with friends or family. Depending on the people in a group who need notification, the many notifications can get on your nerves very quickly. Fortunately, you can also mute groups. You have to click on the menu icon at the top right-hand edge within the group to do this. Then select the Mute menu item. You can choose whether you want to “mute” the group for eight hours, a week, or forever. You can also specify whether you still want to receive notifications from the muted group.
Pin Whatsapp chats: This is how you keep your favorites.
Suppose you don’t always want to scroll through the chat overview to find the message history with a specific person or favorite group. In that case, you can also pin individual chat histories in the chat overview. The respective chat is then displayed at the top – even if there are more recent messages in other chats. On Android, you have to press longer on a chat. Several icons then appear above the overview. The first shows a thumbtack. If you select that, the chat will be fixed. On iOS, you have to swipe from left to right over the desired message history to see the option.
Whatsapp trick for a better organization: save posts for later
Depending on how active your chat contacts are, exciting links or pictures can quickly get lost in the flood of messages. Conveniently, you can also save messages for later. To do this, press and hold the respective message and select the star icon in the top bar. You can then retrieve messages marked in this way by clicking the ⁝ icon in the chat overview and selecting Starred.
Delete Whatsapp messages: How it works
If you have accidentally sent a message to the wrong recipient, there is now the option of subsequently deleting this message. To do this, press and hold the corresponding message and then select the trash can icon. Then you have to click on delete for everyone. But beware: You can only delete messages about an hour after they were sent.
If you want to pimp your text messages a bit, you can also include animated GIFs. The highlight: Whatsapp allows you to access the GIF search engine Giphy via Messenger directly. On iOS, you have to go into a chat and click on the sticker icon directly in the chat field. Then select the GIF icon at the bottom of the screen. On Android, you will find the function if you select the emoji overview in the text input field.
How to make your GIFs with Whatsapp?
If you want, you can also create your GIFs with Whatsapp. Select the camera icon in a chat and then hold down the virtual shutter button to record a video. The clip will then be shown to you again, and you can convert the video into the popular moving image file format by clicking on the GIF lettering at the top. You can also edit the video length and enhance the GIF with texts, emojis, or drawings.
Protect Whatsapp account with 2-factor authentication
Since November 2016, Whatsapp has offered the option of protecting your account with optional two-factor authentication. You can use it to set a pin to secure your account further. However, if you forget this pin, you can no longer move to a new smartphone with your Whatsapp account. To protect against this, the Facebook subsidiary offers you to deposit an e-mail address for recovery. However, this potentially reduces the security of the whole mechanism again.
To enable two-factor authentication in Whatsapp, you need to follow the steps below:
- opens WhatsApp
- then go to your settings and select 2-Step Verification
- now you have to set your six-digit pin and remember it well
- In the last step, you can also enter your e-mail address
This is how you can format your Text
Since March 2016, you can also format your texts on Whatsapp. This is how it works:
Bold: *text*
Italics: _Text_
Strikethrough: ~ Text ~
Block Whatsapp contacts: How it works
We don’t want to evaluate at this point why or why one of your contacts should no longer contact you. But the fact is that there is a practical function in Whatsapp for this. To use them, all you have to do on Android is call up the menu in the chat history with the person concerned. Here you select More and then go to Block. On iOS, you can find the option by tapping on the person’s name and selecting Block this Contact.
We have no time! This is how you play Whatsapp voice messages faster.
Since May 2021, you can change the playback speed of voice messages on Whatsapp. It works like this: First, you press the play button. The speed button will then be displayed instead of the profile picture on the right edge of the voice message. If you press the once, the playback speed increases to 1.5 times the speed. The message will be played at double speed if you press it again. If you press the button again, the actual speed will be restored.
Nothing lasts forever: Send self-deleting Whatsapp messages.
Like other messaging services, Whatsapp now offers the option of adding an expiry date to messages. However, you have to activate this function individually for each chat. To do this, press the recipient’s name at the top of the screen in the respective message history. Now a menu will appear where you have to click on Self-Deleting Messages. But be careful: If your message is quoted, it will still be visible after the seven days have expired. Even if the message is forwarded to another chat, it will still be visible. In addition, these messages are also saved in the recipient’s backup file. Apart from that, you can never know whether the recipient has taken a screenshot of your message.
Broadcast Lists: One message to many recipients
Whatsapp groups are a great way to communicate with multiple contacts simultaneously. However, if you want to send a message to several contacts without the other recipients noticing, creating a broadcast list is suitable. The respective answers of the recipients then appear as individual chats. On iOS, select Broadcasts in the top left of Whatsapp and then create a new list. On Android, you will find the corresponding option in the main menu. However, you can only send broadcast messages to people who have also saved your number in their phone book.
No preview of Whatsapp messages
At least on iOS, you can rule out that you get a preview of incoming messages on the lock screen. For example, you can prevent someone near you from seeing a private message. To turn off the preview, go to Settings, select Notifications, and turn off showing the preview.
Whatsapp: Show profile picture, info, and status only to friends
Anyone who has your number can add you to Whatsapp and see your self-written info text, profile picture, and status by default. Thankfully, you can prevent this by making the appropriate settings. You can find it under Settings > Account > Privacy. You can set separately for the profile picture, your info, and the status whether everyone, only your contacts, or nobody should see them.
Whatsapp Web reflects the messages from your Whatsapp client in your Chrome, Firefox, or Opera browser, so you can conveniently receive and send messages from your desktop. The service can also be used on a tablet with a bit of a trick: If you are using Chrome on an Android tablet with a screen size of ten inches or more, it should be sufficient to request the desktop version of the page via the menu button. Then you scan the displayed QR code with your smartphone, and you’re good to go. However, with smaller tablets, the QR code may not be displayed correctly.
Whatsapp:
How do I secure my chats?
On Android, you can back up your chats to Google Drive. To create a Drive backup, go to Settings, select Chats, and then Chat Backup. Here you can also specify whether you want to start the backups manually or whether WhatsApp should automatically save backup copies in the Google cloud daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can also determine whether backups should only be carried out via the WLAN or the mobile data connection.
WhatsApp Backup with Google Drive – Here’s how it works.
On iOS, you can back up your chat history to iCloud. However, you must first activate iCloud Drive under iPhone Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive. You can then initiate a backup under Whatsapp > Settings > Chat Backup or specify the interval at which the app should automatically create an iCloud backup. You can deactivate the Use mobile data entry under iPhone Settings > iCloud > Documents & Data to save your data volume. Then backups are only carried out if you go to the Internet with your iPhone via WLAN.
Important note:
Your chats are not stored encrypted in the cloud. This applies to iCloud and Google Drive.
The possibility of sending one’s location via Whatsapp has been available since March 2012. Nevertheless, many people do not seem to use this function. It’s pretty handy when you want to meet someone. Especially if the person isn’t overly familiar with a city. Incidentally, you add your current position just like pictures or other media using the paperclip symbol on Android or the plus symbol on iOS.
How can I use my Whatsapp account with a new phone number?
If you get a new phone number, you don’t have to create a new Whatsapp account right away. Instead, you can change the number associated with your account. Your previous chats will also be retained if you use the same phone. You can find the function to change the number in the menu under Settings > Account > Change number.
Whatsapp: Ban incoming media from the gallery
There can be various reasons why we do not want to see pictures or videos sent via Whatsapp in the media gallery of our smartphones. Thankfully, this can be prevented. This is particularly easy on iOS: you go to the iOS settings menu, and from there, you select Privacy > Photos. Now all you have to do is press the corresponding switch on Whatsapp.
Unfortunately, on Android, the whole thing is a bit more complicated. To prevent the Google operating system from scanning a folder for media files and displaying them in the gallery or elsewhere, it must contain an otherwise empty file named media. Therefore, you must create such a file in the corresponding folder for images and videos under Whatsapp > Media on your SD card. You either do this with a file browser like the ES File Explorer File Manager, or you make it a little easier for yourself and use unique apps designed precisely.
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