8. Stay selectively notified

8. Stay selectively notified


Not all group chats are created equal, as some are filled with nothing but white noise. And it’s exactly those group chats you want to ignore until you get some downtime to sieve through everything that’s been said. On the flipside, there are the group chats you want to stay on top of, such as the ones deciding dinner plans for the night and so on. Here’s how you can stay selectively notified.


How: Go to the significant group chats, tap on the name to bring up Group Info and then Custom Notifications. There, you can select a custom message alert for the group chats of your choice. All you have to do now is remember which alert tone you
assigned to which group chat. This customisation is only applicable for group chats though.

7. Send public messages privately



If you’ve got a generic announcement to make - an invite to a weekend BBQ or an intervention
about your friend's unhealthy obsession with KFC - and you don’t want to do it on the loudmouth platform that is Facebook, this feature works in pretty much the same way as BCC-ing people in an email.
Your recipients will get the message as if it was a privately composed one, oblivious to the fact that you’ve sent the exact same invite to 342 other people. Sincerity? What's that?

How: On the top-left-hand corner of your WhatsApp Chats window, just below the search bar, you’ll notice a Broadcast Lists. Tap on it for the option to create a new list of contacts you want your message to go out to, and message away like you would normally

Read more at http://www.stuff.tv/features/21-secret-whatsapp-tricks-you-probably-didnt-know-about#M9rGq5aah5mAUKrs.99

6. Find out the truth about where your friend is

6. Find out the truth about where your friend is


We've all been a victim of that “on the way” lie when the person in question is still in bed. To prevent yourself from ever getting duped again, insist that the contact shares their current location with you by tapping on the arrow icon next
to the text box and then Share Location. There's also a way of preventing them from manually entering their location...
How: The way the location appears is a clue. If it’s a real GPS-based location, the location share will appear as a dropped pin, but if it’s a location they entered, its address will
appear beside the dropped pin. Feel free to call them out on it

21 (5) secret WhatsApp tricks you (probably) didn't know about






5. Get shortcuts to conversations

If there are certain people you chat to more often, it might be a good idea to create a shortcut for them directly on your homescreen, so you don’t have to keep opening and closing WhatsApp.

How: Tap and hold on the chat (group or individual) of your choice and a tab will pop up.
Select the Add Conversation Shortcut option and the chat in question will appear as the person's profile photo on your mobile desktop. Unfortunately this only applies for Android users and not iPhone ones. Sorry guys.

21 (4) secret WhatsApp tricks you (probably) didn't know about





4. Mute group chats

We’re all in at least a few group chats at any one time, created because someone (likely the group admin) was bored. People tend to get overzealous in chats, especially since WhatsApp allows group conversations of up to 50 participants. Who hasn’t woken up to the horror of 100+ unread messages fuelled by a night of boredom?

How: To prevent yourself from being woken up by the constant lighting up of your smartphone screen, you can (a) either flip your phone over and ignore it or (b) mute the offending group chat. Tap on the group chat of your choice, then the name to bring up Group Info where you will find the option to Mute the chat for eight hours to one week or a year. Alternatively, you can exit it altogether.

21 (3) secret WhatsApp tricks you (probably) didn't know about


3. Keep group chats on the down low


As WhatsApp becomes the go-to chat app for more and more people, the likelihood of making group decisions gets carried over
as well. So if you’re always getting added to new group chats filled with strangers (you social butterfly, you), you might want to keep certain details private until those strangers become friends.
How: Head to Settings, Privacy, and then tweak your Last Seen, Profile Photo
and Status to retain a bit of mystery. Choose to share them with Everyone, or only your Contacts, or Nobody at all. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about hiding your phone number.

21 (2) secret WhatsApp tricks you (probably) didn't know abou t(2) See when your messages are read,











Think the double-blue ticks
are the worst thing to happen to relationships since Tinder? Think again. Here's another way you could annoy your loved ones.
In addition to finding out the exact time your messages are delivered, you can also choose to see the exact time your message was read (assuming you choose to stick with the ticks).
How: Go to any of your WhatsApp chats, tap and hold on any of the messages you’ve sent in that chat, followed by the Info option. For iOS users, you can also drag towards the left to reveal a window which will show the time your message was delivered and subsequently read.
It works for group messages too, with the window listing the time each participant read the message.

Read more at http://www.stuff.tv/features/21-secret-whatsapp-tricks-you-probably-didnt-know-about#8bqBOqvR3CXmg1rd.99

21 (1) secret WhatsApp tricks you (probably) didn't know about. (1) Begone, blue ticks of misery





We know how it is. You're at figure skating practice, your phone buzzes, and you glance down briefly before nailing a spectacular triple axel.

Clearly, you've not got time to respond immediately. But at the same time, you don't want the sender to realise that you've already looked at the message, lest they think you're ignoring them when you fail to reply for two more hours. That's the privilege the blue ticks take away.
Recently though, the chat app has realised the error of its ways and silently come up with a workaround. The liberty of message-mulling is ours again.

How: Users can just access Privacy via Settings and disable Read Receipts. There, now it's time to iron out the kinks in your friendships that the blue ticks have caused.

21 secret WhatsApp tricks you (probably) didn't know about

We've rounded up some top tips for everyone's favourite instant messaging service


WhatsApp has a habit of sneakily delivering new features without you ever realising it.
From disabling read receipts to bookmarking important messages, there are plenty of not-so-obvious tricks you can learn to make your favourite mobile IM app more useful than ever.
We've scoured every inch of WhatsApp to gather up its most useful features, to turn you into a messaging pro: