13 Cool WhatsApp Hidden Features You Should Know

WhatsApp quickly grew to become one of the most welcomed instant messaging apps in the world. It is highly likely that you use this app to communicate with your friends and family. If you do, it would be useful for you to learn some WhatsApp tricks and enjoy WhatsApp more.

WhatsApp actually has several features that many users are yet to uncover. What are the hidden features of WhatsApp?

You May Need: How to Restore WhatsApp Messages from Android to iPhone >

1. WhatsApp Secret Chatting – Hide WhatsApp Chats

Usually, you can hide WhatsApp chats with the Archive feature, to chat with friends secretly and privately. Later, you can unarchive them from box. However, how to hide WhatsApp chats without archiving? Firstly, we’d like to show you the methods of it:

Step 1. Download and install GBWhatsApp on your Android or iPhone.

Step 2. Sign in your phone number to restore and access WhatsApp chats.

Step 3. Select the chats that you want to hide and tap on the three-dot menu icon.

Step 4. Click on the Hide/Hide Chat option.

Step 5. You need to set a password to lock the hidden chats, and you need to remember the password to unlock it later.

Step 6. When you open GBWhatsApp again > Click WhatsApp typeface > Verify password > Choose the same chats > Select Mark Chat as Visible or Unhide Chat, you can unhide the chats.

2. How to Change the WhatsApp Text Color

By default, WhatsApp does not allow you to change the color of the text in your chats. However, you can do that using a third-party app from the Google Play Store. So, one of the WhatsApp text tricks is that you can change the formatting of the text that you use in your chats.

Step 1. Grab a free app like Blue Words that allows you to change the text color.

Step 2. Once you have installed and launched the app, select the formatting you would like to use.

Step 3. Then, all you need to do is paste your text into your WhatsApp conversation and your text will use your chosen color.

That little WhatsApp text trick will make your text stand out.

3. How to Underline Text in WhatsApp

WhatsApp lets you format your text in many different ways but you are yet not allowed to underline your text. If you really need to do this, you can use the Blue Words app from the Google Play Store. This free app also can let you add an underline to your WhatsApp chats.

Step 1. After launching it on your phone, choose the Underlined words option and type your text on the following screen.

Step 2. Copy your text from the app and paste it into your WhatsApp chat.

Your text should appear with an underline in your chat.

4. How to Pin a Chat to the Top of the Screen

If you have certain chats in WhatsApp that are extremely important to you, you can actually pin those chats to the top of your chats list. This way, when you open WhatsApp, you will see your pinned chats first even if the other chats have received a message after you pinned your chat.

To pin a WhatsApp chat:

Step 1. Open WhatsApp and find the chat you want to pin to the top of your screen.

Step 2. Tap and hold on the chat.

Step 3. Tap the pin icon in the top icons bar. Your chat will stick to the top bar.

Note: you can unpin a pinned chat just like how you pinned it in the first place.

5. Check the Data Usage for Each WhatsApp Contact

This is one of the several secret WhatsApp tricks where you can actually find out how much data you’ve used in each WhatsApp chat that you have performed on your phone. This should give you an idea as to who you are most communicating with and sharing data.

To access these statistics on your phone:

Step 1. Open WhatsApp and tap the three dots in the top-right corner, and choose Settings.

Step 2. Tap Storage and data on the resulting screen.

Step 3. Select Manage storage from the list.

Step 4. You will see a list of your chats along with the data usage for each of these chats.

6. Get Back Deleted WhatsApp Chats without Backup

If you accidentally deleted WhatsApp chat history but no backup was created, you can still get them back on your phone. There are some third-party apps that enable you to recover deleted WhatsApp messages and attachments, even without backup files. PhoneRescue for iOS allows you to recover deleted WhatsApp history with/without backup. You can check the detailed steps from the page – How to Restore Deleted WhatsApp Messages without Backup, for Android and iOS.

7. How to Hide Your Chats

As of this writing, WhatsApp does not have an official option to hide your chats. However, there is a WhatsApp feature that you can use to hide your chat from being shown on the main app screen. After enabling this feature, it’s difficult for someone to see secret conversations. This feature is the archive one that makes your selected chat conversations invisible:

Step 1. Access WhatsApp and find the chat you want to hide.

Step 2. Tap and hold on your selected chat.

Step 3. Tap the Archive icon in the top bar.

Your chats then get hidden and no longer appear on the main screen but they are still searchable.

8. How to Send a Group Message but Without Creating a Group

Most users believe that you need to create a group in order to send a message to bulk contacts. However, this is not the case with WhatsApp. In this instant messaging app, you can use a built-in feature for each of your selected contacts without actually making a group. This is possible using the Broadcast feature in WhatsApp.

First, meet the following minimum requirements:

• Your phone number must be saved in your recipient’s phone.
• You can only include up to 256 people in a Broadcast list.

Steps to Send WhatsApp to Multiple Contacts:

Step 1. Launch WhatsApp on your phone, tap the three dots in the top-right corner, and select New Broadcast.

Step 2. Choose the people you want to send your message to.

Step 3. You can then type and send your message.

Note: make sure you do not use this to spam people.

9. How to Save Mobile Data on WhatsApp

If your mobile data plan is restricted and limited, you will probably need to free up phone storage and want WhatsApp to use as fewer data as possible. In this case, you can actually stop WhatsApp from automatically downloading media content that you receive in your chats. This will significantly lower the data usage on your phone if you receive too many messages with media.

To enable this option:

Step 1. Open WhatsApp, tap the three dots in the top-right and select Settings.

Step 2. Tap Storage and Data on the following screen.

Step 3. Select the When using mobile data option.

Step 4. Untick all options on your screen and tap OK.

You now need to manually download media content from your chats.

Note: if you use WiFi, you need to configure this option for WiFi separately.

10. How to Mark Important Messages

If you have long conversations with someone, finding important messages becomes difficult as you need to keep scrolling up. If you find this too much of a hassle for you, you can actually mark the important messages in your chats. This way, you can quickly access these messages when you need them at a later time.

Step 1. Launch WhatsApp and access the conversation where your important messages are located.

Step 2. Find the message that you want to mark as important.

Step 3. Tap and hold on the message and then tap the star icon at the top. Your message will be marked as important.

Step 4. To access all your marked messages, open your WhatsApp chat, tap the person name at the top, and select Starred messages.

Also Read: How to Restore WhatsApp Backup from Google Drive >

11. How to Find All Your WhatsApp Photos and Videos

One of the ways to find your WhatsApp photos and videos is to go inside each chat and access the content. However, if you want to locate every photo and video file that you have received on WhatsApp, that option is not useful.

There is a WhatsApp secret trick here that lets you access all your WhatsApp media files.

Step 1. Open the default Gallery app on your phone.

Step 2. Access the Albums or Collections tab.

Step 3. You will find an album that says WhatsApp Images. This album contains all your WhatsApp photos.

Step 4. You will find one more album that says WhatsApp Videos. This has all of the videos that have been shared with you via WhatsApp.

Further Reading: How to Back Up Android WhatsApp Data >

12. How to Hide Media From Certain Chats in Your Gallery

No matter what you download that you have received in your WhatsApp chat, you are going to find that content in your Gallery app. If you have certain personal chats or group chats whose media should not be shown in the Gallery, WhatsApp has the option to let you do just that.

Step 1. Open the WhatsApp chat. This is the chat whose media is to be hidden from the Gallery.

Step 2. Tap the person or group name at the top of your screen.

Step 3. Tap Media visibility on the following screen.

Step 4. Select No and tap OK.

13. How to Mark a Message as Unread

Marking a message as unread on WhatsApp helps you to be reminded about something that you are supposed to do. However, keep in mind that marking a message as unread will not remove the blue tick marks and your message will still be shown as read on the recipient’s end.

To use this:

Step 1. Open WhatsApp on your phone.

Step 2. Tap and hold on the chat you want to mark as unread.

Step 3. Tap the three dots in the top-right corner and select Mark as unread.

Conclusion

WhatsApp actually has much more to offer than what you know, and the secret WhatsApp tricks above should help you reveal some of the underrated features of this app on your smartphone.