The 12 Best WhatsApp Tricks and Tips in 2022 Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Social Media > WhatsApp 64 64 people found this article helpful

The 12 Best WhatsApp Tricks and Tips in 2022

Secret chat and messaging features you'll use right away

By Jennifer Allen Jennifer Allen Writer Swansea University, Staffordshire University Jennifer Allen has been writing about technology since 2010. Her work has appeared in Mashable, TechRadar, and many more publications. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on January 3, 2022 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email WhatsApp Facebook Pinterest Twitter Snapchat Instagram YouTube Online Dating WhatsApp is a really straightforward messaging app to use, but there's a lot more going on under the surface than simply allowing you to message your friends and exchange GIFs. There are plenty of fun WhatsApp tricks out there to learn from secret WhatsApp messaging features to convenient ways of customizing your experience so it looks and works better for you. All the following tips and tricks are great ways to enjoy WhatsApp even more, and entirely for free too. 01 of 12

The Handiest Trick Replying to a Specific Message

You might be wondering how to like in WhatsApp–hitting a button and simply showing you like a message is a common feature on other social networking apps. You can't do that on WhatsApp but you can easily reply to a specific message instead. That works kind of like demonstrating that you 'like' a certain message. To reply to a specific message so it features as a quote in your reply, long press on the message then tap Reply on the new menu that shows up. 02 of 12

An Uncommon Gem Pin a Chat to the Top

Is there someone you message who's most important to you? A close friend or loved one? You can pin their conversation to the top of your chat window so you never have to look around among your other chats to find them. On iOS, simply swipe left to right then tap Pin Chat. On Android, long press on the chat display then tap the pin at the top of the screen. 03 of 12

The Coolest Tip Change Your WhatsApp Wallpaper Background

You don't have to stick with the default background for your chats. You can change your WhatsApp background to a favorite photo or fun wallpaper. Best of all, you can choose a photo from your phone's photo gallery so it looks even more personal than usual.Head to Settings > Chats > Chat Wallpaper > Choose Wallpaper Library, and you can choose from a variety of different backgrounds or a change of color. 04 of 12

The Most Practical Tip Searching Chat

It's easy to get carried away while chatting on WhatsApp so that messages build up fast. If you've realised a little too late that you wanted to save something for later, you can go back and search through your chats. All you need to do is either tap the search icon or type in the search bar to look up anything. It'll search across all your WhatsApp conversations and quickly show you all the results. Just tap the message you need to go straight there. 05 of 12

The Safest Advice Send Your Location to a Friend

If you're meeting up with a friend, or you want to make sure they know where you are, you can easily share your location with someone at the tap of a button. Simply tap on the + sign or paperclip next to the message box, then tap Location followed by Share Live Location. WhatsApp will then send the other person your location so they know where you are. It's a really useful safety feature for if you're somewhere a little unusual or potentially if you're on a first date with a stranger and you want to let a friend know where you are. 06 of 12

The Most Interesting Tip Find Who You Chat to Most

Ever wondered who you chat to the most on a daily basis through WhatsApp? This free WhatsApp trick makes it easy to find out. Simply go to Settings > Data and Storage Usage > Storage Usage and select a contact to see how you converse with them. The list is organised according to the person you send the most data to so if there's one friend you send lots of GIFs to but not much else, they could beat another friend who you send text based messages to. Either way, it's great insight into who gets your attention the most. Statistics are narrowed down to messages, photos, GIFs, videos, voice messages, and documents. 07 of 12

Fanciest Tip Add Emphasis to Your Words

You're not restricted to just typing messages in the basic WhatsApp font. You can also add emphasis through bold, italic or strikethrough. If you want to make a word bold, simply add an asterisk on either side of the word you're typing. For italics, add an underscore on either side, while a tilde on either side places a strikethrough across the word. 08 of 12

The Sneakiest Tip Archive Your Chats

In the past, you could use a special app called Kibo to enable a form of WhatsApp secret chatting. That method of secret message app no longer exists which means keeping your chats private is a little trickier. Your best method is to archive your chats regularly. When you archive a chat, it doesn't delete it forever but it hides it from your main window making it more difficult for someone to see at a glance. To archive a chat in iOS, swipe right to left on a chat window than tap Archive.On Android, long press on the chat then tap on the archive folder to send it that way. 09 of 12

Most Private Tip Reply to a Group Chat Message Privately

Prasit Photo, Getty Images Part of a group chat with all the family or a bunch of friends? You've no doubt had times where you'd rather talk to someone privately. Obviously, you can dig out your private one to one chat, or create a new one, but there are easier ways of doing this. Working kind of like replying to a specific message in an individual chat, it's simple. On iOS, press and hold a message in a group chat then tap More and tap Reply Privately. A private chat opens up with the text box below so you can easily add on what you wanted to say.For Android owners, you need to press and hold the message then tap the three dots in the top right hand corner and tap Reply Privately. 10 of 12

Money Saving Tip Save Your Data Allowance

Does your cell phone provider only offer a limited data allowance each month? WhatsApp has many ways in which you can keep an eye on how it's using your data. Go to Settings > Data and Storage Usage > Media Auto-Download > Switch to Wi-Fi only so that it only downloads media when you're connected to a Wi-Fi network. To see how much data you've used so far, you can go to Settings > Account > Data Usage > Network Usage to see what's going on. 11 of 12

For the Big Fan Be Always Online

Westend61, Getty Images Want to always be seen as 'online' on WhatsApp? You can't do that on your phone but you can set it that way if you sign up to the WhatsApp web app. It syncs everything from your phone and makes it look like you're always available. For certain users, this can be pretty useful. Plus it means you can use WhatsApp on your iPad too. 12 of 12

For Extra Security View Once Messages

WhatsApp For another level of privacy, you can make a text or image you send in WhatsApp "view once." Adding this designation before you hit Send will make the photo or text disappear as soon as the recipient reads it. This optional feature is similar to how things work in Snapchat and is handy for sending things like passwords. Just like with everything else you send in WhatsApp, view-once messages have end-to-end encryption so that nobody, even the developers of the app, can see them. The self-destruct feature adds more protection and doesn't let anyone save, forward, or star these texts or photos. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire How to Change Phones Without Losing WhatsApp How to Use WhatsApp Privacy Settings How to Send Voice Messages on WhatsApp How to Delete Any WhatsApp Contact How to Use WhatsApp Mute How to Restore WhatsApp Messages How to Delete a WhatsApp Group How to Know If You've Been Blocked on WhatsApp How to Make a Group Chat in Instagram How to Delete Skype Conversations How to Fix It When WhatsApp Images and Videos Are Not Showing in Gallery How to Create a WhatsApp Group How to PM on Facebook How to Track Your Messages With WhatsApp Check Marks How to Use Two Step Verification (2FA) in WhatsApp How to Recover Deleted Messages on Facebook Messenger Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies