Are you looking for the most complete WhatsApp tutorial? Have you mastered all of WhatsApp’s hidden functions? The official WhatsApp tutorial gives a great overview of basic WhatsApp functions, but WhatsApp also has lots of hidden features that can help streamline your personal and business communications. We have compiled a list of 26 tips for WhatsApp’s newest functions. Scroll down to learn more and transform your WhatsApp experience!
To help you learn more about the functions that are most useful for you, this blog divides WhatsApp functions into three categories – the WhatsApp messaging, the WhatsApp groups, and the WhatsApp system.
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One of WhatsApp’s more annoying quirks is that you have to add someone to your contact list before you can send them a message. But if you’re just exchanging a few messages to make an appointment, you might not want to go through the trouble of adding someone to your contacts. Luckily there’s a way around it! Read “WhatsApp messaging without adding a contact” to learn more!
Sending someone a WhatsApp message without adding them to your contact list is actually very simple. Just copy and paste this WhatsApp API Link into your phone’s browser: https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=country code + phone number.
For example, if the person’s WhatsApp number is 3001 3636, just enter the following into your browser: https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=85230013636 and a prompt will ask you “Do you want to open this page in WhatsApp?”. Tap “Open” to open up a chat room in WhatsApp. Now you can send a message to the number without adding it to your contacts.
In November, 2011, WhatsApp launched the Disappearing Messages function, which can be used with both personal and business versions of WhatsApp. When the Disappearing Messages function is enabled, any messages you receive will be automatically deleted after 7 days. This is a great way to keep your chat history tidy and alleviate any concerns about WhatsApp permanently saving conversations.
In a private chat involving two users, only one user needs to enable Disappearing Messages to activate automatic message deletion after 7 days; in a group chat, only Administrators can enable or disable this function.
It’s common to use Instant Messaging Software to send other users private information like passwords, IDs, bank cards, or one-time codes. Of course, some users might not want to fill up their device’s storage space with one-time information like this, or they might want to protect their private information from falling into the wrong hands. That’s why WhatsApp launched its latest View Once Photos and Videos function.
When you enable this function, the photos and videos that you send can only be viewed by the recipient once. Once the recipient opens an image or video, it will disappear from their chat, and it will be labeled “Opened” in the chat, preventing any mishaps from occurring.
Some people enjoy recording very lengthy voice messages, but there are others who can’t stand listening to voice messages. The second group is in luck, because WhatsApp recently added a playback speed function which allows users to choose from three playback speeds: 1x 1.5x and 2x. The option to select playback speed will appear when users are playing or listening to voice messages.
You can change the format of WhatApp font to express yourself more clearly. For example, if you want to remind a coworker to delete the phrase “Quick Reply” and change it to “Automatic Reply”, changing the font format could come in handy!
Bold text: Add “*” before and after the text you would like to make bold.
Italics: Add “_” before and after the text you would like to make italics.
Strikethrough text: Add “~” before and after the text you would like to make strikethrough.
When your friend or family member becomes helplessly lost and has no idea where they are or how to get to a rendezvous point, WhatsApp’s “Share Live Location” function can save the day. This function allows users to share their current, real-time location with an individual or group for a designated amount of time (15 minutes, 1 hour, or 8 hours). This will make it absolutely clear where someone is and help you to go find them, or show them how to get to where you are.
WhatsApp allows users to delete messages within 1 hour of the time the message was sent. Sent messages can be deleted from individual or group conversations, and you also have the option of deleting a message from other users’ devices.
Once an hour has passed, you can only delete messages from your own device. Within 60 minutes of the time a message was sent, tap and hold the message you would like to delete, then press Delete. You will be asked to choose whether to delete the message from the devices of other users or just from your own device.
Disappearing Messages can be used in private and group chats. In private chats, both parties can enable or disable Disappearing Messages.
In a group chat, only the Group Admin can enable or disable Disappearing Messages. When Disappearing Messages are enabled, messages will automatically disappear from WhatsApp chats 7 days after they were sent.
To configure Disappearing Messages, tap on the name of a contact or group, then tap Disappearing Messages, and select Enable or Disable.
If you want to locate a specific message in a chat, in addition to using WhatsApp’s chat search function, you can also Star messages to and look them up later. To Star a message, press and hold it and then tap the star icon at the top of the screen. To view messages that have been starred, open up WhatsApp’s Settings menu and tap Starred Messages. Of course, you can also tap on a private or group chats to view a specific Starred Message.
To conserve data and storage space, WhatsApp automatically compresses images and videos that users send. Unfortunately, this can cause a massive drop in image quality, which has led a lot of users to ask their friends to send images and videos via AirDrop. But if not all of your friends use iPhones or if someone forgets to share photos immediately, will you be forced to accept low quality images?
Not quite. To send high quality images and videos, just select WhatsApp’s Document function instead of the Gallery function. But there’s a catch. You will be unable to select files stored in iPhone’s gallery, so you will need to first sync the images or videos you want to send on a cloud drive (like Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, etc.) or the “My iPhone” folder to send the original images or videos to a WhatsApp contact.
Most people are probably familiar with WhatsApp’s voice recording function, but it can get annoying constantly holding down the record button if you’re recording a lengthy message. It turns out there’s an easier solution. While recording a message, just press and hold the microphone icon and swipe upward to enable hands-free recording. When you’re done recording, tap Send to complete sending the message.
To enable Speech to Text in WhatsApp, use a free third party app called “Whats up for WhatsApp”. To get started, install the app and make sure the language settings are set to the desired language, then open a WhatsApp conversation and forward a voice recording to Whats up for WhatsApp. The app will display a transcription of the recording. It can also handle simple translations!
Most WhatsApp users are probably aware that, if you disable WhatsApp’s Read receipts, blue checkmarks will no longer appear next to messages that have been read. Only a gray checkmark will be visible. So the person you are chatting with will be unable to know whether you have read a message or not. Unfortunately, the unread message notification will also disappear from the chat, which runs the risk of your partner opening your phone and discovering all the messages you have read but haven’t replied to – how terrifying!
If you use the following trick, you can read messages and not reply without removing a message’s “Unread Message” label.
The first option is to read new messages from the background of a locked screen.
Another option is to press and hold the chat column for a few seconds and WhatsApp will open a preview, allowing you to read the message content. Release the message after reading and you can return to the WhatsApp chat page, but the “Unread Messages” label will still be there.
Another option is to press and hold the chat column for a few seconds and WhatsApp will open a preview, allowing you to read the message content. Release the message after reading and you can return to the WhatsApp chat page, but the “Unread Messages” label will still be there.
Android users can use the WhatsApp Widget to preview unread WhatsApp messages on their home screen. Just add the WhatsApp Widget to an empty place on your home screen and you can read new messages in reverse, without ever being discovered. Of course, the “Unread” label will also remain next to the WhatsApp messages.
@ People in WhatsApp
Sometimes when life gets a little busy you might find yourself ignoring group chats. But there may be some messages that you need to reply to or which are still relevant to you and require your attention.
WhatsApp’s newly released function allows uses to specify which user to @. In other words, if someone mentions you or replies to your message, an “@” symbol will be visible next to your name in a WhatsApp group chat. So you won’t miss those important messages!
You can also reply privately to messages from users in WhatsApp groups using the “Reply privately” function. Using this function is simple. Just press and hold the message you want to reply to in the group, and then tap “Reply privately”. The message from the group chat will open up in a private chat to that user. Just type your reply and hit send.
No doubt we’ve all experienced being dragged into a strange WhatsApp direct sales group by someone we don’t know. Sure, you can block them and delete the group, but it’s a bit of a hassle to do that repeatedly. One solution is to adjust WhatsApp’s privacy settings, and change the “Who can add me to groups” setting to “My contacts” or “My contacts except…” If the person attempting to add you into a group is not your contact, the system will send you a request which you must accept within 72 hours in order to join the group.
Lots of company departments also communicate using WhatsApp, which has led to the creation of lots of different groups dedicated to specialized topics. Sometimes these groups add members who they think will be interested so they can make important announcements. If you want to make a WhatsApp group into a dedicated announcement group, then adjust the settings so that only the Admins can send messages and voila – you’re good to go! Just set the WhatsApp contact who will send messages the role of Admin, then go to the group’s Settings and adjust the “Send messages” option to “Only admins”.
For work purposes, some departments may only want certain employees to become WhatsApp group admins, but these employees might not have the contact info of all the other employees, so adding new members becomes tricky.
An easy solution to this problem is to use group invitation links. If a group admin sends non-admin users a link to join the group, any WhatsApp user can join the group via the link, without additional approval from the admin.
Mobile devices can be set to run fully in Dark Mode, but what about apps like WhatsApp and Facebook? Of course they can too!
But WhatsApp’s Dark Mode cannot be activated through its settings. To set Dark Mode, go to you phone’s System settings and enter “Screen and Brightness”, then select a dark color as the theme to set the entire phone to Dark Mode. WhatsApp will now automatically switch to a dark background.
Your WhatsApp account is linked to your phone number. If you want to change your phone number, open up WhatsApp’s Settings > Account > Change number, then enter both the old number and the new number. WhatsApp will send a verification code to the new phone number. Complete the verification and your WhatsApp number will now be updated. You may also see a WhatsApp notice of “Your contact has changed their number” suddenly appear, which indicates that you have successfully changed your number.
Which contacts do you chat with the most? Use WhatsApp’s hidden Settings function, “Storage and data” to view rankings of how much storage contacts are using on your device, from most to least. The person at the top of the list is your BFF!
WhatsApp has lots of notification sounds. Users can set special notification sounds for important contacts or groups. When you’re too busy to check your phone, a specialized tone will alert you that you have received an important message, so you can reply more quickly. Just tap the name of a contact or group in a chat and set your preferred notification sound in “Background image and sound”.
After using WhatsApp for several years, lots of chats and conversations will have been stored on your device, which can use up loads of space. But “Clear chat” will delete all conversations, images, and videos. If you just want to delete images and videos to clear up more space, go to WhatsApp Settings > Storage and data > Storage use > Manage, to select the files types you want to delete.
In addition to the personal version of WhatsApp most of us use, WhatsApp has also released a business version of the app, WhatsApp Business. Users can register for a WhatsApp Business account, and use it separately and at the same time. Even though WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business are both loaded onto the same device, they will operate as separate apps, so there’s no need to worry about mixing up clients and friends.
Do you want to find out if someone has a WhatsApp account? Just use WhatsApp’s directory function to check whether a number is registered to a WhatsApp account.
Open WhatsApp, and tap “New chat” in the upper right corner of the “Chats” page, select “New contact”, and enter a phone number into the “Phone number” section. Remember to include the area code.
If the number is registered to WhatsApp, a green checkmark will appear on the right side of “Phone number”, and text will indicate that there is a “WhatsApp account”. Otherwise, the message “This user is not on WhatsApp” will be shown.
In this WhatsApp tutorial, we went over 26 useful tips for lesser known WhatsApp functions. To get the most out of these lessons, bookmark this page and take some time to master these functions!
If you’re using WhatsApp for business, not all of these tips for personal WhatsApp functions will apply when communicating with customers or for sales purposes. For simple business functions like multiple user login, automated tagging, chatbots, and scheduled messaging, you will need to use third party platforms. imBee provides a one-stop instant messaging service platform that consolidates many popular IMs, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger and more to help you streamline your communication internally and externally.
The most useful WhatsApp functions include messaging contacts without saving their number, formatting text with bold and italics, muting and pinning chats, starring important messages, controlling privacy settings like last-seen and read receipts, and using business tools such as broadcasts and automation for companies.
Yes. You can open a chat without adding the contact by using a wa.me or api.whatsapp.com link with the recipient's country code and phone number. This opens a conversation directly, which is convenient for one-off contacts you don't need to store.
WhatsApp supports text formatting: wrap text in asterisks for *bold*, underscores for _italics_, and tildes for ~strikethrough~. You can also use three backticks for monospace. Formatting helps emphasise key points and makes longer business messages easier to read.
Key privacy settings include last-seen and online status, read receipts, profile photo and About visibility, and two-step verification. Reviewing these in Settings > Privacy gives you control over who sees your activity and adds an extra layer of account security.
Businesses can use WhatsApp Business for catalogues, quick replies, and away messages, or the WhatsApp Business API for broadcasts, automation, and multi-agent access at scale. Platforms like imBee build on the API to unify WhatsApp with other channels in one inbox, so teams reply faster and never miss a customer message.
Discuss your channels, team and conversation handover needs in a product demo.
