WhatsApp has changed SMS texting to change into the first texting app for a big majority of smartphone customers. It is free, handy, and gives extra options than a daily texting app, equivalent to the flexibility to ship voice notes, emojis, and stickers. And although nearly each single one in all us has been a WhatsApp consumer for fairly a very long time, there are a lot of options which are hidden from plain sight for a lot of customers.
These options are fairly helpful when used appropriately. For instance, it can save you your telephone’s inner storage by stopping WhatsApp from saving incoming media to your gallery. Therefore, we are going to introduce you to many such options on this information and how one can activate them in your account to take advantage of out of WhatsApp. Earlier in 2025, customers might use chatGPT in WhatsApp, however later in yr, Meta introduced to eliminate AIs from its texting app.
Set completely different notification tone for particular customers
You will not be capable of guess who texted you based mostly on the alert tone alone whether it is set to sound the identical for everybody — particularly when the telephone is out of your hand’s attain. WhatsApp permits you to customise notification tones on your favourite contacts, these with whom you ceaselessly chat, or chats that require pressing replies.
To do that in iOS, open the goal chat and faucet the contact title to entry extra options. Then, scroll all the way down to Notifications > Alert tone > choose the sound of your selection > Save. The steps are the identical for Android, besides that the Alert tone choice is renamed as “Notification tone.” Now, at any time when this particular person texts you, your telephone will sound the chosen alert tone, which is completely different from different chats, so you recognize who has texted with out even selecting up your telephone.
Use a number of WhatsApp accounts on a single telephone
WhatsApp turns into tremendous cluttered once you combine your private {and professional} contacts, multi function account. Your colleagues and superiors are in a position to view your whereabouts, profile footage, and extra — except you select to cover the main points from them — which snatches your sense of privateness within the office. Consequently, the higher strategy is to make use of separate numbers for private {and professional} use.
You may then use these two numbers to create separate accounts on WhatsApp after which log in to them on a single smartphone, be it an Android or an iPhone. Go to the Settings of your major account, and faucet the “+” icon displayed on the precise aspect of your profile image, simply beside the QR code image. Within the pop-up menu, select Add account > Agree and proceed > enter the telephone quantity > confirm the code.
The account will probably be logged in after the verification, and you’ll simply swap between the 2 accounts everytime you need. Due to the WhatsApp multi-account characteristic, you’ll obtain well timed notifications for each accounts to by no means miss an essential textual content. Nevertheless, the corporate began rolling out the characteristic later for iOS; therefore, it is probably not accessible for all iOS customers as of the present date.
Obtain transcripts for voice messages
Listening to lengthy voice messages with fluff and pointless drags will be irritating, particularly when you find yourself out in public and can’t take heed to them at excessive volumes. In such situations, when it isn’t attainable to take heed to a voice message in your telephone, WhatsApp brings you the choice to transcribe them into your chosen language, changing the voice notes into written textual content so you possibly can learn and reply on the go.
To allow this, go to Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts > Manually. Then, select the specified Transcript language choice. It might take a couple of minutes to arrange. As soon as performed, you will note a Transcribe button under each voice word you obtain in your conversations. Click on on it to obtain a text-based model of the voice message, on condition that the sender spoke in the identical language because the one you selected for transcription. You should use the identical steps for each Android and iOS.
Conceal your profile image from sure contacts
There could also be instances when you find yourself pressured to avoid wasting a contact with whom you aren’t very acquainted, however want their contact saved for once you want them (drivers, repairmen, and extra). You won’t need them to have the ability to view your private show footage on WhatsApp attributable to privateness causes.
What you are able to do is select to cover your profile image from specific contacts, so they will not be capable of view your image in any means, regardless of your contact being saved of their telephones. Head to Settings > Privateness > Profile image > My contacts besides… > choose the contacts you wish to exclude > faucet on the “Executed” button within the higher proper nook.
These contacts won’t be allowed to view your image except you revert the settings. Therefore, this characteristic brings you added management over your profile and private info on WhatsApp.
Set timers for disappearing messages
Some conversations are usually not meant to be stored for lengthy in your smartphone, perhaps as a result of they’re non-public or include confidential info that you do not need anybody else to learn. Turning on disappearing messages on WhatsApp offers you the choice to robotically delete all messages in your chat after the chosen interval: 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days. As soon as the period is reached, all of the texts you despatched or obtained will vanish from the chat.
You may allow this characteristic for all of the contacts in your WhatsApp account or for a single chat. Transfer to the Settings > Privateness > Default message timer. Now, choose the period you need, and the setting will instantly apply to all new texts you ship or obtain from this level ahead. None of your earlier chats will probably be affected.
Nevertheless, if you wish to activate disappearing messages for a single chat, open the precise chat > faucet the contact’s title on the header > Disappearing messages > choose the timer. In the event you preserve sure texts within the chat regardless of this characteristic being enabled, long-press the goal textual content and select “Maintain” within the drop-down. You may view all of the saved messages within the “Stored messages” part within the contact’s settings.
Block spam messages from unknown accounts
Spam messages on WhatsApp will be harmful, particularly in the event that they include suspicious hyperlinks that may lead you to shady web sites or information breaches when clicked. You may select to utterly block texts from unknown accounts, so nobody in addition to your saved contacts can message you on the app. However that’s not at all times your best option as a result of this may occasionally trigger you to lose probably essential messages out of your office or acquaintances.
The opposite choice is to dam an unknown particular person from sending you a excessive quantity of texts. Go to Settings > Privateness > Superior > activate the choice to “Block unknown account messages.” After enabling this characteristic, you’ll cease receiving messages from unknown contacts in the event that they exceed a sure quantity to be able to keep away from scams and different dangers.
Nevertheless, all of your different contacts will be capable of textual content you usually. In addition to, the app will cease blocking new messages from unknown accounts when the receiving price returns to regular.
Use App lock
Whereas there are a number of third-party apps that permit you to defend put in apps by way of passwords, PINs, and extra, WhatsApp gives you a built-in App lock, so you do not require further downloads. To make use of this characteristic on Android, go to Settings > Privateness > App lock > allow “Unlock with biometric.” Nevertheless, for an iOS telephone, you must activate the choice “Require Face ID.”
You’ll then be requested to pick the time period after which the lock will probably be applied, equivalent to instantly, after one minute, after quarter-hour, or after an hour. Choose per your comfort, and the app will then require the chosen unlock technique each time you entry it.
However, this would possibly not forestall you from replying to messages by way of notifications or answering calls. Nonetheless, it will possibly forestall intruders from viewing your chats in case another person is utilizing your telephone.
Additionally word that it will possibly solely be used on Android gadgets with a functioning fingerprint sensor and working on Android 6.0+. In case you fail to unlock the app by way of the chosen technique, you should use your telephone’s PIN to bypass the app lock.
Forestall media from robotically saving to your telephone’s gallery
The default setting for WhatsApp is to avoid wasting any incoming media on to your smartphone’s gallery, be it a photograph or a video. This characteristic is not very sensible as a result of more often than not, you obtain pointless screenshots and footage which may not deserve a spot in your gallery. Plus, they take up some portion of the telephone’s storage.
Due to this fact, you possibly can forestall media from exhibiting up within the gallery by turning off the respective characteristic. For iOS, go to Settings > Chats > disable the characteristic “Save to Photographs.” For Android, head to Settings > Chats > flip off the characteristic “Media visibility.”
Now, any media you obtain will not be saved to the gallery except you do it manually by lengthy urgent the goal picture and deciding on “Save” within the drop-down. From private expertise, it’s a useful method to save inner storage in your smartphone as a result of I’d typically obtain a number of ineffective media in group conversations that had no which means, but would take up house on the telephone. The nice factor is you possibly can solely activate this characteristic on your favourite contacts by going to the consumer’s chat settings and protecting “Save to Photographs” to “All the time.”
Create a Passkey for added safety
Passkeys are a handy method to log in to any utility with out coming into your password. It may be within the type of fingerprints, facial recognition, patterns, or PINs. Making a Passkey on WhatsApp will enable you in future account verifications. As an example, you wish to log in to WhatsApp on a completely new machine; as an alternative of an SMS verification, you may be prompted to enter the set passkey, and it’ll robotically provoke the account setup on the brand new machine.
To arrange a passkey on iOS, head to Settings > Account > Passkeys > Create passkey. Proceed along with your Face ID, which will probably be synced to your iCloud account, so everytime you log in to WhatsApp on an Apple machine, you should use the identical key for entry.
On a aspect word, if you wish to use this characteristic on Android, be sure to are utilizing Android 9 or above. Go to Settings > Account > Passkeys > Create passkey. Equally, will probably be synced to your Google account for future use.
Lock sure chats
You might need non-public chats in your WhatsApp account that you do not need anybody else to learn, even by mistake. Therefore, the protected method to defend such conversations is to lock the chat for the actual consumer, so solely you possibly can unlock it with the set password.
The steps are fairly simple: on an Android telephone, open the dialog record on the app > long-press the goal consumer’s chat > click on on the three-dot menu on the top-right nook > Lock chat > Proceed. Enter your secret code within the given field — it may very well be something, from emojis to sure numbers or phrases. As soon as saved, you may be prompted to enter the passcode each time you wish to open the chat.
For iOS, simply maintain the precise chat > select “Lock chat” within the mini-menu a> Proceed. It should robotically scan your Face ID and ship the chat to the “Locked chats” portion, proven on prime of the common chats. Yet one more factor, the content material for this chat will not present up within the notifications, however you’ll solely obtain an alert as “WhatsApp: 1 new message.”
Ship high-quality photographs in Doc kind
There is not any doubt that WhatsApp ruins the standard of photographs and movies we ship by lowering their measurement, thus distorting the pixels. Even the very best high quality movies seem blurry for the opposite consumer, particularly after we ship media from an iPhone. As annoying as it’s, there’s a workaround to ship media in its authentic measurement to maintain the standard intact.
On an iOS machine, open the chat for any consumer > click on on the “+” icon on the underside left of the display > Doc > Select picture or video > choose the image or video you want to ship > Subsequent > Ship. The media will probably be despatched within the type of a doc file, and the receiver might want to obtain it to be able to view. Nevertheless, for an Android telephone, faucet the “paper clip” icon beside the textual content field in a chat > Doc > Select from gallery > Ship.
Nevertheless, these recordsdata will be bigger in measurement than common media, so it would take a while earlier than the obtain completes for the receiver. Do word that you simply can not ship recordsdata bigger than 2GB.
