10 essential WhatsApp tricks and tips you should know

From the use of the typewriter-style font to reading messages without letting the sender know, here is a list of WhatsApp tricks and tips you should know about. We’ve got a few essential WhatsApp tricks you should use.

1. Use the Secret font: Most of us know that WhatsApp lets you enhance the text in your messages. You can make it bold, underline it or have a strikethrough on a word. The lesser-known part is that there is a hidden typewriter-style font that can be used while messaging. The trick to sending messages in the secret typewriter font is to put three grave accent symbols (`) before and after the text you type and then send it – the receiver will get the message in the unique typewriter-style font which will make your message stand out. Do not confuse this grave accent symbol with the apostrophe (‘) symbol when typing.
2. Read messages without letting the sender know: You can avoid the blue tick from appearing on the messages you have read. Put your phone on flight mode and open WhatsApp to read the messages. Close the app after reading and remove it from your multi window. Disable the airplane mode and the chat will appear unread to the sender.
3. Create a GIF in WhatsApp: Animated Gifs have become popular over the past few years for messaging. You now have the option of dedicated apps for animated GIFs, as well as the feature to search for a particular Gif from your keyboard directly. However, you don’t need to rely on these apps to create an animated Gif - you can use any video on your device. Just select the video on the device to be sent to any of your contacts - on the top right corner in the preview, you will see the option of choosing between video or GIF. Keep in mind that WhatsApp can create GIF only from a video of 6 seconds maximum - you will see the option to select Gif or video only when you choose a 6 second or less time length of the video before sending. The good thing is that you can choose any 6 seconds from the video to create an animate gif in the preview, so you don’t have to trim the video separately beforehand. Once you have selected the part of the video you want as a Gif, tap the send button, and it will be shared as an animated Gif image.
4. Send messages without typing: WhatsApp users can send messages without actually typing, thanks to Siri and Google Assistant. While Android smartphone users can use Google Assistant to send messages, iPhone users can send messages using Siri. These digitla assistants can also read out your WhatsApp messages for you.
5. Listening to Voice Messages Privately: A lot of WhatsApp users prefer to send voice messages instead of writing text. The issue with voice message is that it plays on the loudspeaker by default, and if you are not in a private space, anyone around you can hear the audio message. Thankfully, WhatsApp comes with a smart lesser-known trick for this problem. When you play a voice message on WhatsApp, raise the phone to your ear like you would when taking a voice call. WhatsApp detects this change and plays the voice message through the voice call speaker instead of the loudspeaker.
6. Send a message to any number without saving: While WhatsApp does not show up unsaved contacts to send messages by default, there is a small trick to send WhatsApp message to a phone number without having to save it. To use this trick, you would need to use the browser on your laptop or on your smartphone. All you need to do is, in the browser, go to the address bar and type the following – wa.me/91 - followed by the number (e.g. wa.me/91 9898989898) and press enter or go. It will show you a box to start chat with the number, tap on the box, and it will open the chat in your WhatsApp messenger without you having to save the number in your contacts.
7. Find out who you talk to the most: You might have a long list of friends that you chat with on a regular basis, but there would be the one you converse with the most. You can find out which contact uses the maximum storage. Open Settings and go to Data and Storage Usage. Tap on Storage Usage and then select the contact. You will be able to see how much storage has been used by each contact.
8. Read WhatsApp message without informing the sender: Do you know that there is a trick in WhatsApp which will enable you to read a message without informing the sender? All you need to do is scroll down to the notification plan and enable the flight mode on the smartphone. Once done, just open the WhatsApp chat and read the message. After reading the message just make sure that you close the app from the multi-window so, that it doesn't run in the background and sync you when online. After the complete process just removes the phone from flight mode and Voila! you have read the message without informing the sender.
9. Bookmark messages: There might be something important in a chat that you would want to bookmark. WhatsApp allows you to do that by starring these messages. Open the specific message in a chat, hold down the message and then press star.
10. Editing images: When we say that you can edit images on WhatsApp before sending them, we are not talking about Snapchat filters. What you can do here is a doodle on pictures, and add text and emoticons on them before sending them. Select attach > Go to gallery > Select the image you wish to share. Once you do this, the image will open in WhatsApp’s photo editor. On the top right, you’ll see options of adding text, emoticons and doodle. You can resize and change colors of all three once you add them to your image.