There are several advantages to using WhatsApp as an alternative to SMS text messages, which is reshaping communication around the globe. A beginner’s guide to getting the most out of WhatsApp.
Over two billion people use WhatsApp each month, making it the most popular mobile messaging programme in the world. WhatsApp’s free messaging, calling, and video calling capabilities, as well as its media-sharing capabilities, are big draws for its users. However, because to its extensive feature set, WhatsApp may initially appear daunting.
In that case, you could use these WhatsApp Tips and Tricks.
The 10 Best WhatsApp Tips and Tricks 2022
If you’re new to the WhatsApp mobile messaging revolution, you might be confused by all the options available.
Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of WhatsApp, including ways to make it safer and more private and ways to make it look better.
1. Send Disappearing Messages
Messages that disappear on their own do so after a certain amount of time. So, you won’t have to worry about someone saving or sending your message without your knowledge.
You can choose to delete messages from WhatsApp after 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days. You can turn it on for conversations with whoever you want. Keep in mind, though, that you can still see a preview of the message until you open the app, even if the time for the message has passed.
To turn on disappearing messages, follow these steps:
- Open the WhatsApp chat you want to use disappearing messages on.
- Click on the contact’s name.
- Click on “disappearing messages.”
- Select your preferred duration.
Alternatively, if you want to enable disappearing messages for all your contacts, you can do this:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Account, then go to Privacy.
- Select Default message timer and then select your preferred duration.
When you enable the disappearing messages feature, WhatsApp will notify you directly in the chat.
2. Audio or Video Call Your Friends
One of WhatsApp’s most popular features is the ability to make free audio and video calls. WhatsApp allows you to call your friends one-on-one or in groups of up to 32 people.
To do so, open the contact or group that you want to call. A video call and an audio call button can be found in the top-right corner of the action bar. Choose your favorite.
In a video call, like the one on the left of the picture above, your camera will be on by default and you won’t be able to turn it off. You can, however, choose to turn the camera around if you want to. When you make an audio call, the standard WhatsApp background will be shown.
You can turn on and off your mic with both.
3. Customize Your Chat Wallpaper
Do you want to make your WhatsApp conversations look better? You can change the background for all of your chats, or you can set different backgrounds for different chats with different people.
You can also choose between wallpapers that are dark or light. On dark mode, you can also make your wallpaper darker to make it easier on your eyes.
Follow these steps to change the background for all chats:
- Tap the three vertical dots that mean there are more options, and then click “settings.”
- Then click “Chats,” followed by “Wallpaper.”
- Here, you can change how bright or dark the wallpaper is.
- Click “change” to change the background completely.
- You can choose one of WhatsApp’s templates, which come in bright, dark, or solid colors, or you can pick one from a photo you’ve taken. You can also use the wallpaper that comes with WhatsApp.
- Click “set wallpaper.”
If you want to change the background image for a certain chat, here’s how:
- Open the chat whose background you want to change.
- Tap the three vertical dots that mean there are more options, and then click “wallpaper.”
- Change how dark the wallpaper is to your liking.
- Click “Change” to change the background picture. You can choose an image from WhatsApp’s categories or upload your own.
- Tap “set wallpaper.”
4. Change Your Privacy Settings
When you first install WhatsApp, the default settings let any user see when you were last online, your about information and profile picture, and whether or not you have read receipts turned on. Your status updates will only be seen by your contacts, but anyone can add you to a group.
Go to your settings page to change any of these privacy settings. This could be different for each device.
- Tap the three vertical dots on an Android phone to see more options. Then click “Settings,” “Account,” and “Privacy.”
- On an iPhone, you can tap “Settings,” “Account,” and “Privacy” all at once.
- On desktop devices, tap the menu icon, then “Settings,” and then “Privacy.”
From this menu, you can update directly:
- Your “last seen,” which shows the last time you used the app.
- Your profile photo
- Your status
- What you say in “About“
- Default timer for messages to disappear
- Who can put you in a group
- Your live sharing of your location
You can also manage the contacts you’ve blocked, set up a fingerprint lock, and turn on or off read receipts.
Don’t forget that:
- You won’t be able to see the “last seen” of other people unless your own is turned on.
- You can’t see who has read the messages you send if you or the other person has turned off read receipts.
- The “online” and “typing” statuses are always visible and can’t be changed.
5. Keep Track of Your Data and Storage Usage
If you’re using WhatsApp as part of a limited mobile data plan, it can be helpful to keep track of how much data you’re using.
You may also find that your phone is running out of space and want to make WhatsApp use less space. The WhatsApp data report gives you a quick look at how much data the app is using.
All you have to do is go to settings and click “storage and data.” From here, you can:
- Manage Storage
- Check how you use your network.
- Turn on and off the option to “use less data for calls.“
- Change the settings for automatic downloading of media
- Choose the quality of the media you want to upload.
If you click on “network usage,” you can see a breakdown of how much data you’ve used.
6. Delete Your WhatsApp Media
You can go straight to your phone’s file manager or gallery to delete media from WhatsApp without having to delete the whole app.
From there, find the folders for your WhatsApp photos and videos and get rid of the files you don’t need. On a OnePlus phone, for example, this would be listed in your gallery under “App Collections.”
7. Turn Off Automatic Media Download
The pictures and videos in your chats are automatically downloaded by WhatsApp.
If you open your photo gallery and find that it’s full of videos and pictures from WhatsApp that take up a lot of space, deleting each one can be a time-consuming task. A simple hack is to turn off auto-downloading of media and remove all media from your gallery that came from WhatsApp.
Go to settings and then storage and data to do this. In the section for automatically downloading media, you can change the settings for three modes:
- When using mobile data
- When connected on Wi-Fi
- When roaming
You can choose which content you want to download automatically for each of these three. You can turn this on or off for photos, videos, audio files, and documents.
8. Bookmark Messages With the Star Icon
If you are in more than one conversation at once, it can be easy to get lost in the sea of text. There’s a helpful feature in WhatsApp that lets you “star” messages you want to remember or come back to later.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Find the message you want to save by going to the conversation and looking for it.
- Tap and hold the message box you want to star, and then tap on any other messages you want to star as well.
- Choose the star icon from the action bar at the top.
You can always see the messages you’ve marked as important with a contact by clicking on their name and then choosing “starred messages.“
From here, you can browse the whole archive or use the search bar to find the message you’re looking for. To unstar a message, move your mouse over it, click the Menu bar, and then click Unstar message.
9. Delete Messages for Everyone (or Just Yourself)
You can delete all the texts and media you’ve shared with someone on your contact list if you want to get over a painful memory or just clean up a long line of long chats.
This can be done in two ways. You can delete messages for everyone in the chat, or you can just delete them for yourself. In the first case, the message must be deleted within an hour of being sent. So as to:
- Select the message you want to delete.
- Click on “options,” then “delete” and “delete for everyone.”
You can delete your own chat history at any time on your phone. This won’t change the chat history of the recipient. To do this, go to the chat you want to change and:
- Select the message you want to delete.
- Click on “options,” then “delete” and “delete for me.”
If you don’t want to select and delete an entire conversation by hand, you can just click on the contact’s name in your list of recent chats and then click the trash icon on the action bar.
10. Search Your Chat History
If you want to find a message from a chat but can’t remember which one it was and haven’t marked it as a favourite, you should use WhatsApp’s search feature. As long as you can remember a few words from your conversation, it should be easy to find.
You can also use this to find media and documents.
Follow these steps to look for a word in your chat history:
- Open WhatsApp.
- Click the search icon while on the chats screen.
- Type in the keyword(s) you want to find.
- Tap on the right result from the list that comes up.
If you want to look for media that has something to do with the keyword, you just need to click on the right filter. This will make things easier.
One Last Thing
WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. It’s easy to see why the app is so popular: it’s easy to use, safe, and free. But many people don’t know that it can do a lot more than just send text messages. This article should help you discover other things about WhatsApp.
How frequently do you use WhatsApp? What are your favorite tricks on this list, or do you know of any we didn’t include? Tell us in the comments below.
