WhatsApp has some little secrets not known to everybody. These little secrets – I call them WhatsApp hacks – allow you to tweak the app and do more than you can normally do on the instant messaging app.
This post aims to show you the little secrets, and as you read the post, you might discover that you are already using some of the WhatsApp hacks, especially if you are a geek yourself. At the same time, you might not have heard some of them.
Anyways, here are the WhatsApp hacks and tricks I think you should know. For some awesome WhatsApp things, you can download the GBWhatsapp APK.
10 WhatsApp Hacks and Tricks You Should Know
Install 2 WhatsApp on Android without Root / 2 WhatsApp in 1 iPhone without Jailbreak
First, on my list of WhatsApp hacks and tricks you should know is installing 2 WhatsApp on Android without rooting and installing 2 WhatsApp in 1 iPhone without jailbreak. To run 2 WhatsApp on Android at the same time, you need an Android app called Parallel Space; you can download the app from Play Store.
After downloading and installing, you are good to go. Parallel Space helps duplicate the WhatsApp app on your phone so that you can use two difference WhatsApp number and get separate notifications for the two WhatsApp accounts.
As for iPhone, the popular app that helps to run 2 WhatsApp in 1 iPhone without jailbreak is called Othman WhatsApp 2 for iPhone; however, you can download and install Parallel Space for iPhone, too, and run 2 WhatsApp account at the same time.
Hide WhatsApp Status from Some Contacts
WhatsApp Status is the new champ, now beating Snapchat Stories and having only Instagram Stories as its competitor. Like all other Statuses or Stories, it is meant for sharing photos, videos, and texts with your contacts, and by default, all your WhatsApp Statuses are shown to everyone that saved your contact on their WhatsApp phone.
However, you can change the settings and hide your WhatsApp Status from some contacts – perhaps you don’t want your mum and dad seeing your childish Status.
To implement this WhatsApp hack that helps hide WhatsApp Status from contacts, follow the steps below.
- Tap on your WhatsApp Settings
- Then on Account
- Then on Privacy
- Then on Status
On the Status page, you would see three different options: 1. My Contact, which means all the Statuses you share would be seen by your contacts – this is the default; 2. My Contacts Except, which helps you exclude some contacts from seeing your Statuses; 3. Only Share With, which helps you specify only the contacts that should see your Statuses.
So to hide your WhatsApp status from some contacts, tap on “My Contacts Except” or the “Only Share With” option.
WhatsApp Text Formatting Tricks
WhatsApp text formatting tricks are one of the most common WhatsApp hacks we see around. The bolding, striking through and italicising of texts. Here is how to do the text formatting tricks.
How to Bold Text in WhatsApp
To bold texts, add a star (*) at the beginning and the end of the texts you want to bold. For example, you were to send “I love you” to your girlfriend in bold, you would type it as *I love you* and when she receives the message, she will get it as I love you.
How to Italicize text in WhatsApp
To italicise text, add underscore sign (_) at the beginning and the end of the texts you want to italicise. For example, If you were to send the “I love you” message above in italics, you would type it like this: _I love you_ and she (your girlfriend) would get it like this: I love you.
How to Strikethrough Texts in WhatsApp
Striking through texts gives the impression of canceling out the texts; to strikethrough texts in WhatsApp, add tilde symbol (~) at the beginning and the end of the texts.
You wouldn’t want to strike through the “I love you” message to your girlfriend – unless you want her to be very angry with you; so if you were to strike through “I am tired,” you would type it as ~I am tired~ and the receiver would see it as I am tired (but definitely, you would want to add un-strikethrough texts in the chat so that you can have something like: I am tired just kidding.)
Privately Listen to Voice Message without Headsets
The next hack on my list of WhatsApp hacks you should know the hack that allows you privately listen to voice message without headsets. You might be in a public place, not holding your headset and someone sends you a WhatsApp voice message; if you play the message without plugging in the headsets, people in your surrounding would hear the message along with you.
That’s where this WhatsApp hack comes in handy; it helps you listen to the voice message privately – only you would hear the voice message. So to listen to the WhatsApp voice message privately, play the voice message and immediately place your phone near your ear, as if you are on a call.
The proximity sensor on your phone would be activated, turning off the loudspeaker of the phone, and the WhatsApp voice message would sweetly play to your ear as if the voice note sender is talking to you over the phone.
Share GIFs on WhatsApp
Creating and sharing GIFs is one of the less popular WhatsApp hacks. This hack helps you turn any video to GIF and send it on WhatsApp within seconds. There is no need for a third-party video-to-gif converter app. Follow these steps to create and send GIFs on WhatsApp.
- Record or send the video to your phone
- Tap on the attachment icon in WhatsApp to locate the video
- On locating the video, change the format to GIF, and you would see the slider that allows you set the beginning and the end of the GIF loop.
- After setting the loop, you can now send the file as GIF to your contacts.
Enable Two-step Verification in WhatsApp
Enabling two-step verification in WhatsApp helps you add an extra layer of security to your WhatsApp account. It prevents intruders and spies from hijacking your account, by securing the account with a six-digit verification code known only by you.
Follow these steps to enable to two-step verification on WhatsApp.
- Go to your WhatsApp Settings
- Tap on Account
- Tap on Two-step verification
- Tap on ENABLE, then supply your six-digit verification code and then supply your email
Whatsapp Bluetick Disable
The WhatsApp blue tick shows that a message has been read by the receiver; if you don’t like the blue tick or if you don’t want people to know you have read a message, this hack is for you.
Follow these steps to use the WhatsApp blue tick disable hack.
- Go to your WhatsApp Settings
- Tap on Account
- Tap on Privacy
- On the Privacy page, uncheck Read receipts
Read WhatsApp Messages without Sender Knowing
Aside from using the WhatsApp blue tick disable hack to prevent people from know when you read a message, there is another to way to read WhatsApp messages without the sender knowing. This other way involves turning on the flight mode on your phone when you want to read WhatsApp chat.
After reading the chat, you can then turn off the flight mode, and the sender wouldn’t know you have read the message. So disabling the WhatsApp blue tick and turning on flight mode are the WhatsApp hacks to keep people waiting until you read their message.
Pin Chats in WhatsApp
By default, in WhatsApp, old chats are pushed down, replaced by new chats; therefore, pinning a WhatsApp chat is one of the WhatsApp hacks you know and use every day because it helps you keep the chats of your favorite contacts at the top.
With the pin chats hack, you can pin at the top the chats of the people you chat often, and no matter the amount of the new chats you receive, the chats of these favorite contacts would be at the top.
To pin the chat of a contact, long press on the chat from the contact, and tap on the pin icon; the chat would be pin to the top.
Activate Low Data Usage for WhatsApp Call
The last on my list of WhatsApp hacks and tricks I think you should know is the hack that helps you save data when doing WhatsApp call. If you don’t restrict data usage for WhatsApp, the app will use the maximum amount of data during WhatsApp call. So activating low data usage for WhatsApp call would help you save data.
Follow these steps to activate low data usage for WhatsApp call.
- Go to your WhatsApp Settings
- Tap on Data and storage usage
- On the Data and storage usage page, locate Call settings and check the box below it.
Those are the 10 WhatsApp hacks and tricks I think you should know. I hope you would try out the hacks and do more with your WhatsApp.
About Author: Adedapo Olatunde is an author at HowToTechNaija and an editor at Techrabytes. He loves everything tech and hopes to be one of the first tourists to Mars.
very nice
useful tricks. now a day many phones are giving double whatsapp or clone facility by default so you not need to get a separate app for that. but in older devices, parallel space is really helpful.