5 WhatsApp Tips And Tricks That You Should Know

When Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1 billion, the media went nuts. But that was nothing compared to what Facebook bought Whatsapp for – a whooping $19 billion. This breaking news came in days after Viber was reported to have been bought by Japanese online retailer, Rakuten for a fraction of the price tag: $900 million. While Snapchat turned down Facebook’s $3 billion offer.

Whatsapp, one of the most popular mobile messaging app, faced fierce competition from the likes of WeChat (which is huge in China and the Asia pacific region)  WeChat boasts of many features and ensure that users have a secure, dependable and practical messaging experience. With that in mind, here are a few tips and tricks to get more out of Whatsapp.

1. Hide "Last Seen" Timestamp

By default, WhatsApp shows a "last seen" timestamp, telling other users the last time you were on WhatsApp. Some of you may want to disable this timestamp, for privacy reasons. You can disable this timestamp on both iOS and Android.

If you’re an iOS user, you’re in luck, since all you need to do is go into Settings > Chat Settings > Advanced and set Last Seen Timestamp to Off.

 If you’re an Android user, you won’t have access to this setting from the app itself. Instead, you’re going to have to rely on a third party app such as Hide WhatsApp Status. The app disables your WiFi and data connection when you open WhatsApp.

Once you exit the app, your WiFi and data connections are reactivated, WhatsApp will sync, and your messages will be sent.

2. Backup And Restore WhatsApp Chats

WhatsApp makes automatic backups of your chats, but you can also make a manual backup. On iOS, it’s Settings > Chat Settings > Chat Backup, then tap Back Up Now.

On Android, just go into Settings > Chat settings and tap Backup conversations to create a backup. This won’t backup your media, so you’ll need to use a file manager to copy the media folders in /sdcarWhatsApp/Media.

There’s no way to restore chats directly from WhatsApp, so if you want to restore a backup you’re going to have to uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp. When you start WhatsApp after the reinstall, you should be prompted to restore your most recent backup. Just follow the procedure and your chats should all be back.

3. Change Your WhatsApp Phone Number

If you’ve changed phone numbers but kept the same phone, you don’t need to uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp just to change numbers. There’s a setting within WhatsApp that will let you migrate your WhatsApp account to a different phone number. Go to Settings > Account > Change number. Enter your old phone number in the top field and then your new phone number in the bottom field. Then press Done. Verify your new phone number, and all your chat history, groups and so on will be migrated to the new number.

 4. Get WhatsApp notifications On Desktop

If you’ve ever missed a WhatsApp message while working on your desktop, you’ll know how annoying it can be. If you’re using Android, there are a few ways to make sure that you never miss a WhatsApp message again. You can use Pushbullet, which includes notification mirroring alongside a lot of other features, but if all you want is notifications on your computer, check out Desktop Notifications Just install Desktop Notifications on your Android phone, then install either the Chrome or Firefox extensions depending on your choice of browser. Link the extension to the app using the code provided and you’re good to go; you’ll now get WhatsApp (and more) notifications on your desktop.

5. Get Messaging Statistics On Android

This will definitely interest you if you’re a statistics geek, or simply someone who’s interested in finding out you and your friends’ WhatsApp habits. WhatStat provides information for metrics such as your top friends, friends’ and groups’ most active times of the day as well as message distribution for both one-on-one and group chats. WhatStat presents all this information in easy-to-understand visualisations that will make perfect sense to anyone. No more having to pay specific attention to who initiates conversations or what a good time to message someone is; WhatStat will do that all for you.

I hope this helps. If you have any question or suggestion, please let me know.