Whether you use an Android phone or an iPhone, WhatsApp is probably one of your main communication channels through which you stay in touch with all your friends. Because of it being cross-platform, WhatsApp has truly become one of the most useful and efficient messaging tools.

There have been several apps launched in the last few years, but all of them failed to take over WhatsApp. Now, with audio calls, video calls, and the newly launched Stories, WhatsApp has become the premiere messaging app.

Since the app has been around for so long, you might think that you know everything about WhatsApp, but do you really?

There are actually many hidden WhatsApp tricks that you might not know, and they could end up making your life much easier. From putting a contact shortcut on your phone’s home screen to sending a fake GPS location to your friends, there is a lot that WhatsApp can do which it doesn’t list out in its features.

Lucky for you, we have put together all the secret WhatsApp tips and tricks that you can use to make things easier and impress your friends.

15. Add conversation shortcuts on home screen

Don’t you just hate it when you have to open WhatsApp again and again and scroll through the chats to find that one person you want to send a text to?

If you do have someone who you send WhatsApp messages to all throughout the day – maybe a girlfriend or maybe your mom – then you can create a conversation shortcut of that contact on your home screen. The icon on the home screen will have the same picture as the contact’s WhatsApp image, and as soon as you click on it, you will be taken to that particular contact’s chat window.

To do that, open the contact’s chat window, click on the three dots and tap on ‘Create a shortcut.’ That’s it!

14. Stop auto download of images and videos

The only thing worse than using your data pack is when your WhatsApp contacts start sharing photos and videos that you don’t even want to see. Yes, we mean baby pictures and viral videos that you have already seen, and yet, people just keep resending them.

Apart from eating up your precious data, these images also clog up your photo library, making it difficult for you to find your own recent pictures.

Luckily, it’s super easy to avoid this problem. Go to your WhatsApp Settings -> Data Usage -> Media Auto Download, and uncheck all the boxes under that option.

13. Send fake location on WhatsApp

We have all been there – Lying to someone about our location for some reason or another. Half of the time people will believe you, but the other half of the time they will know that you are lying, and that can get you into an uncomfortable situation.

To make your lie more believable, you can download a fake GPS app, if you have an Android phone. Before running the app, make sure you go into your phone settings, tap on Developer options, and choose ‘Allow mock locations.’

After that, you can choose any location you want on the fake GPS app, and when you send your location on WhatsApp, it will be that fake location which you chose.

12. Send WhatsApp messages to your email

To back up, all your crucial (and secret) WhatsApp messages directly to your email, go to the WhatsApp chat list and long press on any of the contact chats that you want to backup. You will see a pop up with a lot of options. From there, tap on the email conversation option which will allow you to send the entire conversation to any email you want.

By the way, you can use this little trick if you have access to any of your friends’ phones. There will be no log of that on WhatsApp, but they may be able to find the message in their email’s sent box. So, just make sure you delete it.

11. Send the same message to a number of contacts

Whether you are busy or just outright lazy, if you want to show your friends that you are thinking about them without putting much effort into it, then we have the perfect solution for you – Just broadcast the same message to everyone.

To do that, open the WhatsApp chat window, tap on the three dots on top, and click on ‘New broadcast.’ Now create a list of contacts that you want to send the message to and finally type in your message.

Don’t worry, they won’t know that it was a broadcast message.

10. Mute annoying groups

Thanks to the stupid WhatsApp update, now everyone gets a notification when you leave a group, which leads to awkward conversations. And things get even worse when you are trying to get rid of your own family’s WhatsApp group.

The best way to not leave the group and still not be annoyed with messages every second is by muting it.

To mute a group, just click on that group’s information in WhatsApp by tapping on its name on top and click on Mute. Then WhatsApp will ask you for how long you want to mute the group. Select a duration and you are set. (You can always unmute a group later.)

9. Set a reminder directly from WhatsApp

Whether you have an important work meeting or a birthday party to attend, when you get the date and venue details messaged on WhatsApp, you can directly add it to your calendar and get reminded before the event.

However, this feature is only available for iOS users, and Android users might have to wait to get this option for some time.

When you get a date or even ‘Tomorrow’ sent in an email, it will automatically get highlighted in blue and underlined. Just tap on the date and you will be directly taken to the Calendar app to create an event.

8. Quote and respond to a message

We have all, at some point in our life, used WhatsApp message screenshots to prove our point. You could deny and say that you have never done it, but that doesn’t make you a saint, it only makes you a liar.

But now, WhatsApp allows you to directly quote a message and respond to it, thus eliminating the need to take a screenshot. Long press on any message you want to quote, click on the reply button, add your quote and send it to whoever you want to send it to.

7. Recover deleted messages

Yes, you can in fact recover deleted messages from WhatsApp, but this trick only works for Android users. To be able to recover, you must be saving all your WhatsApp backups to your SD card. If you have deactivated the backup option, then there is nothing you can do.

If you do have your backup on SD card, then search for the WhatsApp folder and find a sub folder called Database in it. In this folder, you will find 2 files, msgstore.db.crypt which contains all the messages of the current day, and msgstore-yyy..d..db.crypt which contains all the messages sent within a span of 7 days. Right-click on the files and open them with any simple text editor like Notepad.

6. Bold, italics, and strikethrough text

The other tricks we have listed might come in handy every once in a while, but this little trick is so useful, you will end up using it every day. Because we all need a little bit of bold and italics to emphasize our point. Also, it’s fun doing stuff that other people don’t know how to do.

To make a part of your text bold, just add a star (*) at the start and the end of the text, *like this*. When you press send, it will automatically appear bold.

For italics, use the underscore (_) and for strikethrough add a tilde (~) at the start and end.

5. Deactivate read receipts

The only thing worse than ignoring someone’s texts is letting them know that you are intentionally ignoring them, and read receipts were probably invented to serve that very purpose.

While it’s still okay if you are only ignoring your mom or girlfriend, things can quickly get out of hand if you try to ignore texts from your boss, and that is why the safest option is to completely deactivate read receipts.

To do that, just go to Settings -> Account-> Privacy-> Deactivate the read receipts option, and you are done.

4. Don’t let everyone see your WhatsApp stories

Another effort by another app to copy Snapchat’s very famous feature, and we have another failure on our hands.

WhatsApp probably doesn’t realize that people use Snapchat stories for a reason – they have control over their privacy, and most importantly, their parents aren’t on Snapchat.

If you really want to use WhatsApp stories but don’t want your entire contact list to see it, then here is some good news – You can actually decide who sees and doesn’t see your stories.

To do that, go to the Status page and tap on the Privacy option. From there, you can either create a whitelist or a blacklist of contacts, and you will never have to think before updating anything on WhatsApp again.

3. Change the background wallpaper

You may think you don’t need a background wallpaper on WhatsApp, but a little customization can truly make your chatting experience amazing.

Not to mention, you will be able to flaunt it in front of your friends because your WhatsApp screen won’t look like everyone else’s.

To change the background wallpaper, go to Settings -> Chats -> Click on Change Chat Wallpaper. Make sure you pick a wallpaper with the same dimensions as your main phone wallpaper, so it scales properly.

2. Send documents

Unfortunately, iPhone users cannot send much on WhatsApp apart from images, videos, and gifs. But Android users can send any type of file including PDF, DOCX, VCF, and even music files.

To send a file, first locate where it is on your phone, then go to the chat window and tap on the attachment option. Click on the document option there, browse the file on your phone, and send it.

And that’s it – No emails required and no back and forth messages to make sure the other person has received the file.

1. Change WhatsApp number but keep the data

One of the greatest and the worst things about WhatsApp is that your number is your main ID which connects you to other people. The great part is that you never have to tell anyone your WhatsApp ID if they already have your number but the bad part is that changing your number means messaging all your WhatsApp contacts and letting them know about it.

Not to mention, you also lose all your data because you will have to create a new ID. Well, thanks to the new WhatsApp update, you will never have to worry about that problem again.

If you want to change your number but keep your WhatsApp data, just go to the Settings -> Account -> Tap on Change Number. You will have to do the usual number verification process, and after that, you can use WhatsApp again like nothing happened.

In fact, all the users in your contact will also get a notification that your number has been changed. You won’t be deleted from any groups too.

Sources: androidpit.com