5 WhatsApp Tricks You (Probably) Did Not Know
The world’s most used personal messaging application is full of features, but not all users know much about them. For many people, the app is only for chatting with friends and relatives for individual or group chats, with no more options or details.
Still, WhatsApp gets new features constantly and many of them go unnoticed by those who are not paying attention to the subtle changes in the app’s interface. We’ve selected five things the application can do that you may not know about.
1 – Know who read your message in a group chat
The already famous blue “tics” that they deliver when a contact has read your message are not particularly useful in group conversations. After all, in a chat with more than three people, the blue tick only appears when your message has already been read by all the members.
It is possible to find out who, individually, has already received or read your message, and who has not yet seen your message. To do this, touch and hold the message you sent until more options appear on the screen. Then tap the three more option points and select “Data”. Here is the report of your message.
2 – Hide your profile picture of strangers
Who has never been included in a WhatsApp group without knowing much of the members? This is certainly true for many users, but you can hide some of your personal information so these “strangers” do not see them if you do not want to.
To do this, open the Settings screen and select “Account”. After that, go to “Privacy” and determine who can know when you’ve been online, your profile photo, and your status phrase: whether anyone, just your contacts, or anyone.
3 – Create shortcuts for conversations
Among the tens or hundreds of contacts you have in WhatsApp, your most frequent conversations are likely to be with only one or two groups, up to three or four people individually. You can create a shortcut to these chats, without having to open the app every time you want to talk to someone specific.
The way is relatively simple. In the conversation list, press and hold the group or contact you want, and from the three option points in the corner of the screen select “Add shortcut to the conversation”. Your chat icon is now available directly on your smartphone’s home screen.
4 – Send a message to multiple contacts at the same time
Want to make an announcement to several of your friends or relatives, but do not want to use Facebook or create a group just for that? There is a more efficient way to send the same message, individually and privately, to multiple contacts, without having to copy and paste several times.
Just create a broadcast. Select the three most options points in the corner of the screen and touch “New Broadcast.” Choose which of your contacts will receive the message and write. Each of them will receive their message individually as if they had been sent separately.
5 – Finish automatic image download
Most animated WhatsApp groups are often filled with images and videos exchanged between members. By default, the application downloads all these files and clogs your smartphone with lots of useless things that you need to manually delete from time to time to free up space.
To prevent the app from automatically downloading images and videos, go to the WhatsApp Settings. Select “Data usage” and under the “Automatic download” tab, determine what the application can do when roaming, on the mobile internet network, or on Wi-Fi: downloading images, audio, video, documents, everything, or anything.