Genius WhatsApp tricks to try today from weird fonts to secret ‘stealth mode’

HUNDREDS of millions of us now use WhatsApp every single day but not everyone is making use of all the wonderful tricks available.

We've rounded up some of the best WhatsApp tips and tricks below so you can give them a try.

Reveal your WhatsApp bestie

You can check which of your friends you send the most WhatsApp messages to, and track the exact number of texts you've sent.

You can find the number of texts you've sent and received in a chat, and how many times you've shared locations.

This trick also shows how many photos, GIFs, videos, voice messages, documents and stickers have been sent – and the amount of storage space they're taking up.

Finally, you can even see exactly how much storage space your chat with a person is clogging up overall.

To check your message counter simply open the WhatsApp app and click on the Settings tab.

Next, open the Data and Storage Usage panel, then click Storage Usage at the bottom.

Here you'll be presented with a big list of your chats, ordered in terms of storage space taken up.

The people at the top of the list will be sucking up the most storage, and can take up significant amounts if you trade lots of pictures or videos.

To see how many texts you've sent with a person, click on any of the chats and you'll get a breakdown of stats.

Change your font

It's possible to make your WhatsApp messages bold or italics, add a strikethrough effect and even change the font to a secret monospace style.

A monospaced font is one where every letter and character occupies exactly the same amount of horizontal space.

First, you'll need to locate the backtick icon, which looks like a reverse apostrophe.

On your phone, just hold down on the apostrophe icon and it'll show up.

Then, place three of those before and after your message, like this: ```text goes here```

That will monospace your message, which will definitely confuse your friends.

Bolding text is also a great way to emphasise a word or phrase.

All you need to do is place an asterisk either side of the word or phrase you're trying to embolden, like so: *text goes here*

Similarly, it's also possible to put a WhatsApp message into italics.

It works in exactly the same was as the bold trick, but using different symbols.

You need to place an underscore on either side of the word or phrase you're trying to edit, like this: _text goes here_

The strikethrough features draws a line all the way through your text: strikethrough.

To get a strikethrough, place a tilde (that's that squiggly line symbol) either side of your message, like this: ~text goes here~

Use 'stealth mode'

Ever wanted to read a WhatsApp text without alerting the sender?

Anyone with an iPhone can read a full WhatsApp text without ever causing the "blue ticks" to appear for the person who sent the message, without having to turn this feature off.

This trick only works if you don't have WhatsApp open when the text comes through.

And you also need to ensure you've updated your iPhone to iOS 13.

You'll need to wait for the message to arrive on your phone, so a notification appears on your lock screen.

Then press down for slightly longer than usual on the message on the screen, and the full text will appear.

You can scroll up and down the message in full, even if it's very long.

Importantly, reading this notification won't trigger the blue ticks.

You'll need to make sure you don't swipe away your text notification or the trick won't work.

Pin your favourite chats

If you'd rather have your favourite chats permanently at the top of your WhatsApp then this is the trick for you.

On an Android phone, tap and hold the chat you want to pin and then tap the Pin icon that appears at the top of the screen.

To unpin the chat, tap and hold it, then tap the Remove Pin icon.

On an iPhone, swipe right on the chat you want to pin.

Then tap Pin, which will lock the chat to the top of your app.

To unpin a chat, swipe right on the pinned chat and then tap Unpin.

If you're using WhatsApp for desktop, click the down arrow at the right side of a chat.

Then choose Pin to pin the chat.

Alternatively, to unpin a chat, follow the same steps but press Unpin Chat.

You can only pin up to three specific chats to the top of your chat list.

In other news, WhatsApp will stop working on thousands of iPhones next month – is yours on the list?

The US Navy has warned that TikTok is a ‘cybersecurity threat’.

And, Taxi app Lyft had to apologise after blocking people with ‘rude’ names like ‘D*ck’, ‘Finger’ and ‘Cummings’.

Do you have a favourite WhatsApp trick? Let us know in the comments...

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