Your favorite instant messaging application WhatsApp is one you can not do without. Life seems so difficult at times when you can not access this particular mobile app. Use it for calling, info & document exchange or simply messaging this does it all! And it has also many different tricks to make the experience even more joyous and convenient. But do you actually know all its features? If not then let me aware you of WhatsApp’s secretive features that you have to know if you are an everyday user.
1. CHAT HEADS FOR ANDROID DEVICE (ROOT ACCESS)
The chat head functionality on Facebook Messenger looks really cool. This can also be brought about for SMS apps through certain procedures. And now the same can be done for WhatsApp – instant messaging application. Simply use the WhatsApp Chat Heads app from the Play Store and get chat heads for all your conversations.
These are also somewhat customizable, and you can even enable specific LED colors, notification sounds along with chat head colors for each of the contacts. Keep in mind that the application requires root access to your device. Plus, it is still in beta version, so many of you may encounter certain issues here and there.
2. BACKUP & RESTORE CHATS
Though WhatsApp automatically takes backup of your conversations, but you can even create a manual backup. For Android, just go to Settings > Chat settings and tap Backup conversations to manually create a backup. Please note that this doesn’t backup your media files. So you need to use the file manager and copy those media files on your SD card. If you an iOS user, just go to Settings > Chat Settings > Chat Backup, then tap Back Up Now.
And there is no way to restore your chats directly from WhatsApp. So restoring happens only when you uninstall & then reinstall WhatsApp on your device. After the reinstallation process, you should be prompted to restore most of the recent backup. Follow the procedure and the conversations easily restore.
3. NO BLUE TICKS
It’s simple, we all need some time and there are only a few people who actually are too instant when it comes to messaging. So, if you are an “at-my-comfort” kind of a person and take the time to reply to WhatsApp messages (that too without the other person seeing the terrifying blue ticks), then this trick is what you need to follow. It easily lets you read a WhatsApp message by displaying only 2 normal ticks and not the blue ones.
- Once you receive a message just don’t open it. Also, dismiss the notifications on your home screen.
- Enable Airplane mode. This blocks
- WiFi & mobile data preventing the arrival of new messages
- Now open WhatsApp to read that particular message
- After this close the application and then disable the Airplane mode.
So, despite having read your message, blue ticks will not be displayed. And if in case read receipts are annoying for your WhatsApp existence, entirely turn them off. Go to Settings > Account > Privacy and toggle the Read Receipts off.
4. HOME SCREEN SHORTCUT FOR INDIVIDUAL CONVERSATIONS
This trick may easily speed up your WhatsApp communication enabling you to create a shortcut of a Whatsapp contact or group straight on the home screen. This shortcut directly links to the in-app conversation.
On Android, just long press on the contact or the group you want to create a shortcut for. Tap on the Add conversation shortcut option when the menu pops up. This creates a shortcut right on your home screen. And this feature isn’t available for WhatsApp on iOS. So you can use third-party apps to have similar functionality.
5. TRANSFER FILES BETWEEN SMARTPHONE & PC
With the help of Whats App Web working on your desktop, you can easily transfer files from your smartphone to the computer without the hassle of connecting both the devices via cables. This can be done by sending the files to yourself in a message (please refer the below screen shot).
- So the easiest way of self-messaging is by creating a group with one friend and later deleting them from the same
- Just connect your smartphone & PC using the QR code on WhatsAppWeb
- Send files from your phone & watch it appear on your PC
- Save those files to your computer by tapping the download icon
6. HALT THE IMAGES FROM APPEARING IN GALLERY / CAMERA ROLL
WhatsApp images that keep appearing in the Gallery or Camera Roll can sometimes be very annoying. And the efforts that go in deleting them every time are also a waste. For some people, having these images just clutter up the storage. So, below is how you can fix this issue on your smartphone.
iOS users, simply go to the Settings > Privacy > Photos and turn WhatsApp switch off. Android users will have to create a .nomedia file in WhatsApp images or video directory. For this, you need a file explorer such as ES File Explorer. Just navigate to the media folders, tap the “New” button, pick File & simply create a file named “.nomedia”. This halts the Gallery from scanning the folder.
7. CHANGING MOBILE NUMBER
In case you are changing your number but are keeping the same phone, you don’t have to uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp to swap the numbers. Keeping two separate numbers, one for calls and the other exclusively for WhatsApp is also a complicated option. Hence there’s a setting within WhatsApp itself to let you migrate your WhatsApp account along with all the groups and individual conversations to a different mobile number.
- For more such cool tricks you may also like to read : 13 Whats App Tricks that every user should know!
