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What is WhatsApp?
WhatsApp is a cross-platform messaging software currently owned by Facebook. It’s available on almost all known operating systems, including KaiOS and Mac OS.
The idea for this software came from the two great minds of Yahoo!, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, who are currently known as the founders of WhatsApp. The interesting thing to know is that they both applied for Facebook jobs and were rejected.
The application was originally created by WhatsApp Inc., of Mountain View, California. It soon became the world’s most popular messaging application by 2015, while recently the count of users touched the high value of 2 billion as recorded in February 2020.
But Facebook acquired it in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion.
The Reason Behind WhatsApp’s Popularity
The high versatility of this free application since its release has made it a popular messaging software among users who love to chat and send voice messages. In 2018, WhatsApp introduced group video calling for up to four people in its applications. However, it was integrated only into mobile-based software. Recently, the number of users in a group video call was extended to 8.
The Advantages of Using WhatsApp That You Must Know:
- To use WhatsApp, you don’t have to pay a single penny; it is completely free to use.
- From any corner of the world, exchange messages with your buddies living in other countries.
- Supports voice calls and video calls.
- It is easy to exchange document files up to 100 MB.
- Messages can be deleted for everyone until they are not seen by the other person.
- Share locations, media files, audio, videos, and more.
- You can change numbers without losing your account.
How to Exchange Messages on WhatsApp from Mobile
Before you start messaging, you are required to download this free software from the Play Store and authenticate yourself at the interface.
Steps to follow before you use WhatsApp :
- Install the application from the Play Store or iOS store
- Launch the application and approve the required permissions for storage media and the camera.
- Enter your phone number and continue
- Carefully enter the verification code received on your mobile number
- Fill in your username and set up your profile picture, and you are ready to go.
That’s all that’s required, now you can select any of your contacts to tap and send messages. If you don’t see the contacts, you can manually import your entire contact list.
Here’s How You Can Exchange Messages on WhatsApp from the Web
WhatsApp allows users to interact with the web interface as well. This particular feature of WhatsApp makes it a versatile platform for messaging. This is a great thing if you are on a Linux operating system.
WhatsApp doesn’t have a native-built software for Linux but you can use it through the WhatsApp web interface provided.
To do that, all you need is a browser:
- Navigate to https://web.whatsapp.com/
- Open WhatsApp on your Android or iOS
- Click on the three dots at the top right corner and select the WhatsApp web
- Give the camera permission if it asks, and the camera will pop open with a square cut in the bottom
- Hold the camera such that the square cut fits into the QR code displayed in the web interface
- Once the QR code is scanned, you will automatically be redirected to your contacts and chats
That’s all. Now you can chat with anyone on your contact.
How Does the WhatsApp Privacy Function?
There are times when you do not want to share everything with your contacts. This is when you can work with WhatsApp’s privacy.
To change the privacy of your WhatsApp, follow the below process:
- Click on the 3 dots available at the top-right of your WhatsApp.
- next, Click on Settings
- Click on Account and go to Privacy
- Here, change the settings of the sections that you want to keep private, such as your last seen, profile photo, about, status, read recipients, blocked contacts, and more.
Apart from these functionalities, there are many more features that can be used in WhatsApp. Let’s see each of its smallest features in detail:
1. How to Record Audio Messages?
Recording an audio message is very easy in the application. All you need to do is, open the chat window of the person to whom you want to send the audio message, click on the mix c part, and record.
There is no time limit for recording audio, so feel free to record audio of any length.
2. How to do an Audio Call?
To make an audio call, tap on the phone icon button located at the top. Here, you cannot do a conference call.
3. How to do a video call?
To do a video call, click on the video call icon located at the top. When your video call is on, you can add other people as well.
4. How to create a new group?
In order to create a new group, click on the 3 dots, and the first option listed is “New group”. Now click on that and add as many people as you want. The limit is 100 people in the group.
5. How to exit from a group?
To make an exit from a group, open the group window, tap on the 3 dots at the top right, click on “MORE” and then click on exit group. Once you are out of the group, only the admin will be able to add you again.
6. How to Report a contact?
If you find any of the people in your contact list misbehaving with you and you want to report that person, you can do it easily. Just open the chat window, click on the 3 dots at the top right, and click on Report.
Reporting a person will block that person and also delete the conversation you had with that person.
7. How to change the wallpaper?
Do you know you can keep customized wallpapers on your WhatsApp? To do so, open any chat window, click on the 3 dots at the top right, and click on the wallpaper. You will see various options, such as:
- No wallpaper – if you don’t want to keep any wallpaper, choose no wallpaper
- Gallery – if you want to keep any picture from your gallery, then pick it up from the gallery
- Solid Colour – if you want to keep any solid color pre-defined in WhatsApp, then choose this option.
- Wallpaper library – WhatsApp provides an entire library to choose from. You need to download the package to use it.
- Default – keep the default wallpaper by WhatsApp.
8. How to broadcast a message?
If you want to send a message to multiple people at a time, then you can choose the New Broadcast option from the 3 dots option and make a list of your buddies to whom you want to send the message.
9. How to delete single or multiple chats?
To delete a single chat, just hold the chat, and above you will get an option to pin it, delete it, mute it, or archive it. Click on the delete icon. If you want to delete multiple chats, select all chats, excluding groups.
10. How to Pin, Mute or Archive chats?
Pinto pin any chat, hold the chat and at the top pin, the icon will be available at first. Click on it, and your chat will be pinned.
Mute – Select chats and click on the mute icon at the top to mute it. You can mute notifications for 8 hours, 1 week, or 1 year. If you want to keep the mute functionality on but still want to see notifications, then you can select the show notifications option.
11. How to Search?
To search for any chat, click on the chat icon at the top and enter the name of the person you are looking for.
12. How to block or unblock a contact?
To block a contact, open the chat window of the person you want to block. Click on the 3 dots at the top right, click on more, and click on Block.
To unblock the contact, tap on the message “You blocked this contact. Tap unblock” and then click on unblock. The other way to unblock it is, to open Settings > Accounts > Privacy > Blocked Contacts and unblock it. This is how you can do so.
WhatsApp is rolling out the first official animated sticker pack!
In recent times, WhatsApp has been working to implement a lot of new features. Among them, the latest feature for Android is new tools for Storage Usage, and for iOS, the most updated feature is a search by date. However, let me know some details about another announcement of WhatsApp that is most popular among WhatsApp users, and that is animated stickers.
To view and download an official animated sticker pack, you need to update your WhatsApp version to the latest and newer version from the Google Play Store or the App Store. The feature animated stickers consist of three parts –
- If you can view animated stickers, you can save and send all received animated stickers to others.
- You can also use animated sticker packs from a third party. Many animated sticker developers are working at this time to import them into WhatsApp.
- You can also download and use the default animated sticker packs from the WhatsApp store, that currently exists.
So, WhatsApp is rolling out the first official animated stickers pack with their animated pack called playful Plyomaru.
Hidden Tricks That You Must Know About WhatsApp
Hide WhatsApp photos and videos from the gallery
WhatsApp has added an amazing new feature to hide photos and videos from particular WhatsApp chats and groups in the gallery. Yes, we don’t have control over what content we are getting in our WhatsApp groups. These photos or videos showing up in your phone’s gallery can be a big problem. To access this feature, just open a WhatsApp group or chat, tap on that name to access that option, choose the media visibility option, and select your convenient option.
This technique will not remove existing WhatsApp media and will only hide new incoming media.
Security of WhatsApp using a Fingerprint lock
You can secure your WhatsApp account using fingerprint unlock. You can only access this feature if you have registered your fingers on your phones and will be allowed to access WhatsApp using the fingerprint lock feature. To enable this feature, go to settings -> accounts -> privacy and scroll down to fingerprint lock. Before using this trick, you should remember that if fingerprint authentication fails, then there is no other option to unlock WhatsApp.
Share live location
If you want to share your location with your contacts, then WhatsApp also enables this feature. The location is updated in real-time, and you can share your location with your contact for 15 minutes, 1 hour, or up to 8 hours. To access this, tap the attachment icon in the text input field. Then, select a location, and then select ‘ share live location’.
Hide notifications from the lock screen
To add extra privacy to your WhatsApp, you can hide WhatsApp notifications from the lock screen. To enable this feature, long-press on a WhatsApp notification. Then click on the details. From the next display, choose the option to hide messages on the lock screen.
Delete the message after you have sent them
It is a useful feature when you have accidentally sent a message to the wrong person. This is the best option, as you can delete them. To enable this feature, long-press on the message and select delete for everyone. This feature works for the messages sent in the last hour. Also, keep in mind that this feature will be ineffective within 7 minutes if someone has quoted your message.
Also read: Can You Hack WhatsApp Messages Online with No Survey?
Conclusion
Unlike WhatsApp mobile, WhatsApp web doesn’t let you create a separate identity to use it, rather, it imports everything (from your identification to contacts) that you do have on WhatsApp mobile. Video calling support is also not provided on the WhatsApp website.
