Maybe you want to impress your friends or maybe you want to make the most of the popular messaging App around town, here are 5 great tricks and tips that you won’t regret knowing.
#1. Hide “Last Seen” Timestamp
For some reason, some people don’t like this “last seen” feature on Whatsapp. This feature helps whoever wants to send a text to know whether or not your Whatsapp is active since Whatsapp isn’t like old-school chat Apps with “online”, “offline” status. But maybe you don’t want distraction from that annoying friend of yours. All you’ve to do to deactivate “last seen” timestamp is to first update your Whatsapp to the latest version since older ones don’t allow this then go to settings > Account > Privacy > Last seen > Nobody. Simple, right?
#2. Lock your Whatsapp
Another privacy trick for your Whatsapp especially for those of you don’t wish your siblings land on those sensitive images you’ve shared is to lock it. If you don’t have a lock screen PIN or pattern set, you’ll have to rely on third party Apps since Whatsapp itself doesn’t have this as a standard feature. To do this, simply download and install Secure Chat – Lock messenger or Lock WhatsApp. They are all free.
#3. Change your Whatsapp number
This is also trivia trick. All you have to do is simply go to settings > Account > Change number. Changing your phone number will migrate your account info, groups and settings. However, before you do so please ensure that you’re able to receive SMS or calls on your new number. If you have both a new phone and a new number, Whatsapp advises that you first change your number on your old phone.
#4. View data usage stats
Whatsapp has a genius way of sending messages to your friends. It uses your network data connection like EDGE, 3G, 4G LTE or Wi-Fi instead of the standard network signalling channel used by SMS, hence saving you lots of money. But even then, Whatsapp is a multi-media messaging App allowing you to send not just text, but images, audio and even record a video of yourself. This of course has data and therefore cost implications which will land you a hefty data bill before you know. Now, to avoid that data bill, you need to know how much data you’re using. To do this, simply go to settings > Account > Network usage. You’ll see how much data has been spent on sent, received messages, media bytes sent and received and the overall data usage. When I checked mine, I had 18 MB on sent stuff and 45 MB on received stuff…not so bad.
#5. Delete your account
So you want to pull the plug on Whatsapp for a new shinny tool? No problem. Simply go to settings > Account > Delete my account. Please note that deleting your account will erase your message history and delete you from all of your Whatsapp groups. To delete your account, all you have to do is confirm your country code and enter your phone number. These are some of the tricks we found indispensable. Do you have any that we don’t know about? Lets know in the comments. Image: supersams.co.uk
