Top 5 hidden WhatsApp features to enhance your experience

WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging platform in the world and it has over a billion users. It has a ton of features such as WhatsApp web, video calling, media sharing, emojis, stickers and a lot more. These are some of the features that are surface level and most people know how to use it. However, beneath all this, there are some hidden features which a lot of people don’t know about because, in some instances, they are hidden deep within the app. Here is a look at some of the hidden features of WhatsApp that you should know about.

Text tricks

WhatsApp doesn’t have any shortcut to enable text formatting like word processing apps; however, it does allow the use of special characters to add neat features like making the text bold, italics or even a strikethrough. To make the text bold you add an * at the beginning and end of a word or sentence without space before the first and last character. For example, *bold* will make the text bold. In order to italicize the word, you need to and an _ at the beginning and end of a word or sentence. To illustrate this, _Italics_ will italicize the text. To add a strikethrough, you simply need to do the same but instead, you use the ~ special character.

App lock

This is more of a new feature than a hidden trick. After rolling out this feature to iOS devices, WhatsApp has now extended fingerprint unlock to Android handsets. WhatsApp also is capable of supporting Face ID unlocking feature for iPhones which is convenient for newer iPhone owners. Also, a noteworthy mention is that if the app is locked with a fingerprint, you will still be able to respond to video calls or audio calls easily.

Custom notifications

Yes, this feature actually does exist. You can easily manage your WhatsApp notifications for the settings option and it gives the ability to set different notifications tones for group or personal notifications. To enable it, head on over to the contact you want the notification changed, tap on the person’s name and scroll down to custom notifications. In this option, you can manage the specific notification tone you want for that contact.

Data usage

WhatsApp gives you the option to keep track of your data usage. This isn’t just limited to network usage; but also storage usage on the phone. It can provide you with some amazing insights such as keeping a track of whom you chat with the most or whom you share the most media with. It can also be used to keep a track of the storage space on your smartphone. All this can be accessed from WhatsApp Settings and then Data and Storage usage.

Pin chats

There is a neat feature within WhatsApp that allows you to pin chats for frequent access. This is a useful feature, especially because we get a plethora of texts and at times, we want just a couple of people to stay at the top of our list. In iOS, you need to swipe right to reveal more options and the pin chat option will be shown in grey colour. On Android, you can do this by pressing and holding a chat until a checkmark appears. At the top, you can select the pin icon to pin the chat.