WhatsApp Tips and Tricks

 

Send your location to a contact

WhatsApp allows you to send photos and videos to contacts, as well as share a contact or document but you can also send your location. This is very handy if you're meeting a friend somewhere, especially if you opt for Share Live Location, which allows your contact to see your Live Location for the duration you choose so they can track you. Duration times are set at 15 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours.

Android
1. Open WhatsApp and start a new conversation or open any existing chat.
2. Tap the paper clip icon at the top-right > location (Google Maps icon) > tap send.

Chat > Specific chat > Tap on the paperclip to the right of the message box > Location > Share Live Location > Select time frame.

iOS: Chat > Specific chat > Tap on "+" to the left of the message box > Location > Share Live Location > Select time frame.

Find out how much data you're using 

If you're worried about your data usage, you can find out exactly how much you are using. You'll get a breakdown of total number of sent and received messages, as well as data sent and received. 

iOS & Android: Settings > Account > Data Usage > Network Usage.

How to see and turn off last seen

WhatsApp's last seen feature allows you to see when someone last checked WhatsApp, as well as allow users to see when you last checked. If a contact hasn't disabled last seen, it will appear under their name at the top of an open chat. To disable last seen:

iOS & Android: Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen > Switch to Nobody.

Hide the blue ticks

Those blue ticks can get you in a whole world of trouble, especially when you don't reply instantly and someone sees you have read their messages. You can turn them off, but it's worth noting that if you do, you won't get read receipts for your messages either.
Apple users: If you get Siri to read the message, the blue ticks won't appear so this could be a good way to read a message without the sender knowing you have. Android users: If you read your messages in notifications, the sender won't get the blue ticks.

iOS: Settings > Account > Privacy > Toggle off Read Receipts.
Android: Settings > Account > Privacy > Untick Read Receipts.

How to create bold, italicized, or strike through text

It’s been around for a while now, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t know about this neat WhatsApp trick.

Simply put an asterisk (*) at the beginning and end of the desired word or sentence and you can make it bold. So if you’d like to bold the word biscuit, you’ll need to type *biscuit*. The same goes for italics, only with an underscore (_) on either side of the desired text instead.
To strike through text, you’ll need to add a tilde (~) to the beginning and end of the desired passage. There’s also an option to create mono space text, by adding three grave accents (`) to either side of the text.
Want an easier way to do all this? Then highlight the word or passage in question, tap more and choose from bold, italicize, strike-through, or mono space. This doesn’t work on all devices though, so you might have to do the long way.