You have used WhatsApp for years.
Every day, several times a day, without thinking about it.
And yet a few of its most useful features sit quietly in plain sight.
Here are five worth learning today.
Can I send a message to myself?
You can, and most people have never tried it.
Start a new chat.
Your own name sits right at the top of the contact list, marked "(You)".
Use it as a notepad.
OTPs you need for two minutes, addresses, parking spots, shopping lists.
It syncs everywhere WhatsApp is signed in.
A note typed on your phone is on your laptop instantly.
No new app, no account, no subscription.
How do I find one message in a year of chatting?
Long-press any important message and tap the star.
Starred messages collect in one place.
A bank reference or a flight number is then always two taps away.
For everything else, use search and narrow by date rather than scrolling for ten minutes.
While you are there, long-press your most-used chats and pin them to the top.
Three pinned chats save you more time in a month than you would guess.
Can I make my text bold or italic?
Wrap the words in a symbol and WhatsApp does the rest.
Put asterisks around a word for bold.
Use underscores for italic.
Use tildes for ~strikethrough~.
Nothing to install, and it works on both iPhone and Android.
It earns its keep when you are sending instructions to a group.
Bold the price, bold the time, and nobody can claim they missed it.
How do I hide one private chat?
Long-press the chat, then choose Lock chat.
That chat moves into a locked folder.
It opens only with your fingerprint, your face or your passcode.
Its notifications stop showing the sender's name and the message preview.
Nobody scrolling past your notifications sees a thing.
Handing your phone to a child or a colleague stops being an act of faith.
Things to Remember
- Use the chat with yourself as a free, synced notepad.
- Star the messages you know you will need again.
- Pin your three most-used chats to the top of the list.
- Use asterisks, underscores and tildes to format text that matters.
- Lock any chat you would rather nobody saw over your shoulder.