Essential WhatsApp tips you should know about!
WhatsApp is an absolute giant in the smartphone world. Gone are the days where we would have to put some credit on our mobiles and then try to squeeze as many words within the character limitations so that our texts didn’t exceed more than 1 message.
Now, thanks to apps such as WhatsApp, we can endlessly send as many messages as we want providing we have either a data connection or WiFi network. This ability to talk to our friends and family is, for the most part, a wonderful implementation of technology. There are some tips you should know about though when it comes to using WhatsApp, and we’ve found some of the most useful ones.
1. Backing up your chats
If we upgrade to newer devices or if something happens to our current one that requires us to replace it, it is always helpful if we have a backup of the contents on our smartphone so we don’t lose information, messages, media etc. For WhatsApp, you can back up all of your chats so if you change handsets you can easily retrieve them again. To do this, simply open the app and tap on the three dots in the top-right hand corner. From here you’ll want to tap on “Settings” –> “Chats” –> “Chat Backup”. Then just follow the instructions to create a backup of your messages.
2. Removing your “Last Seen” time
I’m sure you’ve sent a message, and then noticed that the friend you’ve messaged was last seen online 2 minutes after you sent it, yet they still haven’t replied. This makes it a useful feature to annoy us, but it also works against us when we go online but ignore for a moment that message sitting in our inbox. To remove the aspect of “last seen” you’ll need to tap the three dots again, and go back to “Settings”. Then tap “Privacy” –> “Last Seen”. You’ll be shown three options, “Everyone”, “My Contacts” and “Nobody”. Select the option you want, but note that if you disable your last seen status from your account, you’ll also become blind to your contacts’ last seen too.
3. The Blue Ticks
Those blue little ticks…are they are curse or do we love the small little things? If you send someone a message, two little blue ticks will appear next to it once it has been read. This can be annoying if our recipient doesn’t reply, as we know they’ve seen it. Again, similarly to the “last seen” aspect of WhatsApp, this can also work against us. You can disable the feature but you’ll also be denied access to seeing blue ticks when you message people as well as cutting yourself off from them seeing you. To do this, tap the three dots, find “Settings” –> “Privacy” –> “Read Receipts” and simply untick the box.
4. Group Notifications
What can be worse than the little ding your device makes every two minutes because you’re in a group chat with 15 other people? It can get tiring and annoying very quickly, but rather than resorting to leaving the chat altogether, you can disable notifications. To do this, tap the three dots in the top-right hand corner, tap “Settings” –> “Notifications” and under “Group Notifications” simply change the notification tone to “Silent”.
5. Favorite Messages
Lastly we have a tip for those of you who want to easily access messages that bring a smile to your face or that you don’t want to spend ages searching for. To do this, simply tap and hold on a particular message that you like and it’ll become highlighted. At the top of your screen you will see a star icon. Simply tap this and the message you’ve selected will become starred. This can then be found easily under the “Starred Messages” section of the app.
