With these tips, you can tap the full potential of WhatsApp: free telephony, use on the PC & Co. Even if someone else is considering switching: WhatsApp is still the undisputed number 1 among messenger services. Despite the enormous popularity of the short message service, many functions still need to be used, even though they offer real added value. For example, can you mute annoying contacts or see the app’s data usage? We present thirteen useful functions.
Users of the WhatsApp service can also lock the app with a fingerprint or Face ID. For Android devices, you have to go to “More options” and then click on the “Privacy” sub-item under “Account” in the settings. From there, you will find the item “Fingerprint lock” at the bottom, now follow the app’s instructions. For iPhones, you can also find the screen lock in the settings under “Account” and then “Privacy.” Finally, only Touch ID required or Face ID required must be switched on.
Since the beginning of 2018, WhatsApp users have also been able to delete messages that have already been sent. This function is always useful if messages were accidentally sent to the wrong person or you slipped your finger on the send button while typing before you can read the text again.
However, deleting it afterward only works if both the sender and the recipient have the latest version of the app installed on their smartphones. There is also a time limit: the delete signal must reach the message’s recipient within 4096 seconds – a little over 1 hour. The recall will fail if the cell phone is switched off during this time or not logged into the Internet. Another condition: The function is reserved for owners of iPhones, Android, and Windows phones.
Most users are familiar with sending friends to their current location via WhatsApp. But did you know that you can also continuously reveal your location over a longer period? For this feature, WhatsApp users are given three options for how long they want to share their location: 15 minutes, one hour, and 8 hours. This function is useful, for example, if you want to be picked up but want to avoid staying in one place. Or when visiting a market with friends, where you can confidently say goodbye knowing that you will find yourself again later.
Instead of a conventional mobile phone call, WhatsApp users can call their contacts directly via Messenger. There is also a telephone receiver button that starts the call. The hands-free function can be activated via a loudspeaker button. Alternatively, the call can also be made as a video call. WhatsApp is, therefore, a real alternative to Skype – at least on mobile phones.
If the person called rejects the call, that’s no big deal: WhatsApp offers the option of leaving a voice message with an answering machine function. But that only works if you hang up yourself. WhatsApp calls are generally free of charge, but data traffic may incur costs for mobile phone use. To reduce data consumption with WhatsApp calls, the item “Use fewer data for calls” can be activated in the settings (“Storage and data”). In most cases, however, it is cheaper to use the WLAN network.
To avoid being disturbed by WhatsApp messages during bedtime, users can mute contacts and groups for a specific time. To do this, the relevant chat is first opened, and the “Mute” entry is selected in the options menu. Groups and contacts can be muted for 8 hours, a week, or even a year. However, the setting can be revoked at any time by the user selecting the contact or group and deactivating the function in the options.
Active WhatsApp users receive group invitations at regular intervals. But how can you create such a group to exchange ideas with your clique? Android users go to the chat area and use the three dots in the top corner of the screen to select the pull-down menu. The first menu item listed is “New Group,” It is now selected with a touch. In the next step, the group participants can be invited: Tap on the relevant contact.
Once everyone has been selected, the green arrow takes you to the next step: A group name and icon can now be assigned. Finally, tap on “Create.” Apple users, on the other hand, have it easier. You can go the direct route via “New Group” in the chat area. The group founder is always automatically the administrator. However, he can also give other participants these rights in the group settings or remove them from the group again.
To avoid losing their WhatsApp messages after resetting the smartphone, users should create a backup. To do this, the user goes to the settings and selects the item “Chats.” Here the entry “Chat Backup” will open. In the case of Android, the data can be stored in the Google Drive cloud if desired. With iOS, the files are stored in iCloud. The user must allow WhatsApp to access the respective online storage.
It can be specified whether the backup should only be carried out via WLAN or the mobile network to protect the data account. In addition, WhatsApp offers the option of whether videos should also be saved in online storage. Alternatively, a backup of a single chat can be triggered manually. To do this, the desired chat is opened, and the “Export chat” item (on Android) is selected via the menu and the “More” option. WhatsApp then offers the option of exporting the plain text history or attaching the media. The generated archive can then be sent by email.
Users will find a separate area for data protection in the WhatsApp settings. Select “Account” and then “Privacy.” Here you can configure, for example, whether friends should receive a read receipt. However, if the user deactivates it, they will see no read receipts either. Furthermore, it is also possible to permanently block contacts here so as not to be bothered by unwelcome fellow human beings. To do this, the user selects the “Blocked contacts” item in the data protection menu and uses the plus icon to specify which users should be ignored.
WhatsApp provides extensive statistics on the most important activities. To look at the log, the user opens the “Data and storage usage” item in the settings and selects “Network usage.” The overview shows, for example, the number of messages received and sent and the data consumption broken down by the various services. Furthermore, users can see how much storage space each chat is using. The corresponding list can be found in the Memory usage menu item.
Another rather little-used function of the messenger service is text formatting. A special character is placed before and after the respective text to use the function. Asterisks (example: *Hello*) make the text appear bold. For italics, an underscore is inserted before and after the text message (_Hello_). With tilde characters before and after the text, the paragraph appears struck through ~Hello~. If you put three grave accents before and after the text (many people will remember them as “accent grave” from French lessons), the font appears in typewriter style, “`something like that“`. However, this procedure is only necessary in exceptional cases.
If received photos and videos are to be saved permanently on the smartphone, this must be specified in the settings. The corresponding menu item can be found under “Data and memory usage” and is called “Media auto-download.” Here you can specify whether and which media types (images, audio, videos, documents) are saved locally on the device. In addition, you can define what the connection conditions must look like to start the download.
This way, potential cost traps such as roaming can be ruled out. Incidentally, individual photos can be saved by tapping them and using the share option. Then, in the case of Android, the photo can be forwarded to the photo app. It works very similarly on iOS: the images are marked by tapping them, pressing the share button, and selecting save images.
All those for whom the virtual smartphone keyboard is too small or sit in front of the PC all day can use the browser function or the free software tool. Users either use WhatsApp for Web or the WhatsApp Desktop App program. However, a prerequisite for both variants is that the WhatsApp application is also installed on the mobile phone.
First, the user surfs to web.whatsapp.com in the desktop web browser or downloads Messenger directly to the PC. In the WhatsApp chat view, the user now opens the options and selects “WhatsApp Web.” He then scans the QR code on the PC screen. Incidentally, WhatsApp recommends using a mobile phone to connect to the WLAN network.
It’s a shortcut key: if you want to open a friend’s chat without going through many detours, you can place a corresponding shortcut on the home screen. Open the menu in the chat history and tap on “more.” Then the “Add shortcut” function appears. Tap, and a corresponding icon will be placed on the home screen. The function is extremely practical but still needs to be used more. Incidentally, iOS users were unlucky: Unfortunately, the option is not available on the iPhone.
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