# The most useful hidden WhatsApp tricks ever
WhatsApp is not a simple messenger app anymore. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it has many hidden WhatsApp tricks you may not use on a daily basis just because you didn’t know about them. From catching lying friends to bookmarking messages to pretending you didn’t read a text in spite of having the blue ticks enabled, check out the following cool tips and tricks to help make the best of WhatsApp.
1 –Â Reply super quick
Those who need to reply to messages super quickly all the time, can do so straight from the lock screen! Just open WhatsApp and then Settings > Notifications > Popup Notification for messages (Group Notifications option below that). Popup Notification will give you an option to Always Show Popup. iOS also has similar toggles. But you’re not set yet.
You also have to make sure notifications are allowed on the lock screen from your device’s Settings menu. In case you’ve enabled custom notifications for one of your chat buddies or groups, popup alerts won’t appear on the locked display until you view that person’s or group’s individual chat profile, tap on Custom Notifications and switch on popups.
2 –Â Catch a liar
This hidden WhatsApp tricks is for all those who want know if they are being lied to. We’ve all got that one friend who says they’re just around the corner while you wait in frustration for them to turn up each time you’ll go out. The next time they claim to be ‘a second’ away from you, ask them to share their location on WhatsApp.
If they send their correct location, it will be seen without the address line below. Your friend can pretend to be nearby even if they’re an over a kilometer away from you. In case they’re faking it, the details of their location will appear along with an address line below it.
3 – Find out exactly when someone saw a WhatsApp message
Next tip on our list of hidden WhatsApp tricks is about those telltale blue ticks called read receipts which inform you when someone has read a message. Bet you thought that they can only indicate if your friend has seen your message or not. There’s a way to tell exactly when the receiver checked a particular message. Just long-press on it and tap the Information icon.
The screen will display the two blue ticks along with the precise time the message or photo was read or seen. There’s a small flaw though.By default, two blue ticks appear WITHOUT the time and date if the receiver has turned off read receipts or hasn’t actually looked at your message. It’s applicable for group chats too.
4 – How to lock WhatsApp messages
Did you know that you could protect WhatsApp from busybodies by locking it with a password or pattern? You’ll need a simple third-party application for this. Android users can try Smart AppLock or Messenger and Chat Block. iOS users will need to jailbreak their iPhone (risky business) for such an extra dose of privacy.
5 – Hide chats without deleting them
In case you’d like to keep a certain conversation out of prominent view on WhatsApp, long-press on it and tap the Archive Chat option which pops up. Using this feature does not delete the chat or back it up to your SD card. Instead, you’ll have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the Chats panel to access these conversations.
It’s an easy way to separate chats that are important so you don’t delete them by mistake. However, an archived conversation, or part of it, will disappear if you delete it from the Contacts section where they are inconveniently not marked as Archived. Maybe the developers will fix this issue soon?
6 – Jump to special messages on WhatsApp
This addition to our list of hidden WhatsApp tricks is for when you’re at work and your friends are laughing it up on WhatsApp. You don’t have time to read the entire group conversation. What do you do? Simply bookmark where you left off by long-pressing on a message and hitting the Star icon at the top of your phone’s screen. It works for individuals as well as groups.
When you can finally go back to the conversation, open WhatsApp and select Starred Messages from the drop-down menu in the far top right-hand side. You can jump to the place from where you stopped checking the chat from here. Just make sure you don’t delete the whole string of messages in the mean time.
7 – Read a WhatsApp message without getting caught
If you want to read a message on WhatsApp and feel it’s going to be problematic for you if the sender knows you’ve seen it, do not panic. Do not launch the application! First go to your device’s settings and put it in Airplane mode. This will turn off the data and allow you to read the message without earning those pesky blue ticks.
Once you’ve checked WhatsApp, close it down completely. Make sure it’s not running at all by shutting it out of recent tasks. You can then turn Airplane mode off once again. Do note that the blue ticks will show up beside the messages you saw, the next time you launch the messenger app.
8 – Hide your last seen status and read receipts
Don’t want everyone to know when you last opened WhatsApp? From Settings > Account > Privacy, you can change your Last Seen status so only your contacts, Nobody or Everyone can see it. You can also deselect Read Receipts (blue ticks) from Privacy, to prevent others from figuring out if you’ve checked their messages or not.
Bear in mind the fact that disabling Last Seen and/or Read Receipts means you won’t be able to see the same details about your friends and acquaintances even if they have enabled the features. Your WhatsApp status and profile picture can be given the same treatment too.
9 – How to back up WhatsApp messages
This hidden WhatsApp tricks is for those who are worried about losing their precious WhatsApp data. Backing up WhatsApp messages is easier than you thought. Just launch the messenger tool and go to its Settings option. From there, select Chats And Calls and then, Chat Backup. You will get the choice of backing up content to Google Drive or your email account over Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi and/or cellular. There’s also an option to include videos for safekeeping.
10 – How to hide WhatsApp images
So you want to hide WhatsApp content from your gallery? Hey, no judgement here. Keeping videos or images away from prying eyes is simple as hell. All you need to do is launch your file manager (such as ES File Explorer or File Commander) and go to your WhatsApp folder. In there, you will find a Media folder.
The Media folder will contain one for WhatsApp Images. Long-press on it, tap the I icon on top of the screen and add a dot before the name of the folder you’ve selected. Now check your image gallery; the WhatsApp content in the folder you renamed will be invisible. It reverts to its normal state once you remove the dot.
If the folder you’ve kept a secret can’t be seen when you open your file manager, don’t panic. Elect to see Hidden Files from within the file manager’s settings. It will enable you to see the WhatsApp Images folder and rename it if you please. The same can be done for WhatsApp videos too.
11 – Change phone number, not WhatsApp account
This entry in our line of hidden WhatsApp tricks is extremely useful for those business users who regularly change their phone numbers. As long as you’re using the same device, you can change your phone number and still keep the same old WhatsApp account. The application has a Change My Number section under Account, accessible from its Settings tab. The first thing to do is to make sure your new SIM card is activated. So slip it into your old phone.
It should be able to receive calls and texts. If you have a new number and a new device, you can switch your account to the new number from the old SIM itself. All you have to do is type in the old number and the new one in the boxes indicated and you’re ready to go. You account info, groups and profile will be passed on to the new number.
The Account section has a Delete My Account option. You should opt for this from your old SIM so that your contacts don’t continue seeing your old number in their WhatsApp list. Your friends won’t automatically be informed of the change when you switch numbers. It’d be smart set the new number as your status so they know when you message them.
12 – Change SIM card, not WhatsApp phone number
Our next entry in the list of hidden WhatsApp tricks is for those holidaying abroad. Many people are faced with the dilemma of whether or not they should associate their account with the new SIM or not in order to keep in touch with friends and family back home. But did you know that you can keep your old phone number and account in spite of switching SIM cards?
Slip in the new card in your old phone and don’t change any of your settings. Contacts will still be able to see your old account and can continue messaging you over WhatsApp even though the SIM has been replaced. But you won’t be able to use two numbers from the same device unless you’re willing to root your phone and install a third-party app.
13 – Add chat shortcuts
This one’s a no-brainer. Those who’ve been using WhatsApp for a long time can skip this tip. But folks who are new to it may like to know that they can add chat shortcuts. In case there’s a person or group you keep messaging frequently, you can launch the messenger app and long-press on that particular contact.
A window will pop up, offering you many options. The first one says Add Chat Shortcut. If you tap on this, a shortcut to your favorite WhatsApp pal or group will appear as a bubble icon on your home-screen. You can jump into conversations quickly from here. It’s not available for Apple iOS though.
14 – Mark as unread
Next addition to our list of hidden WhatsApp tricks is for those who saw something on a WhatsApp chat but can’t reply to and read through at present? You know you’re going to forget about it later! Why not set a visual reminder? Press down on the contact and select Mark as Unread from the popup window. The conversation will be highlighted with a large colored dot next to it.
The Chats tab on the top of the screen will display a count of how many are marked as unread. Once you open and read and/or reply, the visual reminder will disappear. If you see a text but decide to reply to it later, the sender will still see the blue ticks (if enabled) next to it whether you mark the chat as unread or not.
15 – Save money on WhatsApp data usage
You won’t be the first or last person to feel cheated when you get your mobile bill at the end of the month. Those who use WhatsApp quite frequently for exchanging pictures and videos are likely to experience the sting of data charges even more than others who generally send and receive plain old texts through the app.
You can save money on data charges by setting images, videos, and audio to auto-download only when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot. Go to Settings > Chats and Calls > Media Auto-download. You can choose what you want to be downloaded and what you don’t want to be downloaded while using mobile data, roaming, and Wi-Fi.
16 – Lower data usage for WhatsApp calls
This addition to our compilation of hidden WhatsApp tricks that was introduced to WhatsApp as an update in July 2015. This trick is for folks who use the app to make calls. You can spend less on voice calls by navigating to Chats and Calls from Settings. The very bottom of the display will show a Low Data Usage option below Call Settings.
Enabling this feature will lower the amount of data consumed by a WhatsApp call. We tried dialing up contacts in both settings. There was no audible difference between the quality of calls in either high data or low data mode. It’s a handy way to keep data usage to a minimum when making calls.
17 – How to use WhatsApp on PC
As long as your phone and PC are connected to the internet, you can use WhatsApp from just the big screen. To do so, launch the app and tap on WhatsApp Web from the hamburger icon on the top right-hand side. Then go to this official link and scan the QR code shown on the page through your smartphone’s camera.
The application will scan the code and automatically link the desktop version to the mobile one. In other words, you PC will mirror what appears on your handset’s display and vice versa. You can then start using WhatsApp from your computer. Don’t forget to log out from your PC when you’re done!
18 – Mute groups or people on WhatsApp
Oh, how we hate friends who keep conversations going on WhatsApp constantly while we’re busy working and don’t want to be tempted to chat. If your willpower is not as strong as your dislike for interruptions, simply shut them up for 8 hours, 1 week or 1 year by going to their WhatsApp profile and selecting Mute.
19 – How to change WhatsApp wallpaper
This is one of the simplest hidden WhatsApp tricks in our list. You can set any photo on your device to be your background image (or the default one) by going to this option from WhatsApp Settings > Chats and Calls > Wallpaper. The company also has a separate official app delivering a choice of backgrounds, downloadable through the Wallpaper sub-section.
20 – Find out who’s messaging without checking your phone
Those of you who don’t check WhatsApp because you get too many messages may still like to know if a certain friend or group has pinged you, without looking at the screen. The best way to do this is to open your favorite contact’s WhatsApp profile page from your phone and set a special alert tone just for them from Custom Notifications.
21 – How to block/unblock people on WhatsApp
The last addition to our hidden WhatsApp tricks features for those who whish to stop certain people from contacting you over WhatsApp by blocking them from within the app. To do so, just tap on their name, select More from the menu on the upper right side of the screen and then, Block. Follow the same steps to unblock them. If they’re not in your Chats, look for them in WhatsApp Contacts.
Once you find them under this section, long-press on their name and hit the Unblock popup option which appears. Messages or content they sent you while they were blocked, will not appear when you unblock them. But if they call you while they’re blocked, they will still hear the phone ringing and think you’re ignoring them.
That’s one thing WhatsApp ought to fix since some may not be comfortable with the notion of letting a particular unwelcome contact thinking they’re being ignored. Maybe the developers could change it so that blocked callers get an ‘out of range’ alert when they dial up the person avoiding them?