Top 4 Whatsapp Tips and Tricks You Didn't know Existed

After the acquisition of Whatsapp by Facebook, everyone is expecting some integrated features between these apps. But till now, there has not been any significant updates. Even then, Whatsapp team keeps on adding new features (listed below) in their recent releases. To name a few:

• Voice Call feature.
• Read Receipts.
• Web enabled Chat version.
• Option to limit access to Status, Last seen and Profile picture.

The above options are so much common and everyone is aware of them. This article is going to explain 4 tips that not so many are aware of.

1. How to Share Location details in Whatsapp?

Google Map and GPS application is needed in your Smartphone to play with this option. Let’s assume there is a situation you want to share your location to your Friend, so that he can drive to you. Here is how you can do it, right within this famous messenger. In Whatsapp, Choose the contact with whom you want to share your location.

1. On Right hand top, there is option available to attach a media file with the conversation.
2. Click that and a menu will appear to attach Image, Video, Audio, Location and Contact.
3. Click on Location. (Before clicking it, enable GPS in your mobile.)
4. Map will open and it will try to locate your GPS position.
5. Below the map there is option as “Send you current location”.

This is how you can share your current location detail to a chat conversation.

2. How to Hide Whatsapp new message notification in Status bar?

When any of your Friends send a message in Whatsapp, it appears in the home screen status bar. There is no option built in within the messenger. But there is a simple alternative as given below.

Hide Whatsapp Push Notifications for Android

• Go the Android Settings -> More -> Application Manager. It will not list all the installed applications in your Android system. The navigation path to go to Application Manager may be different based on your OS Version.
• Find Whatsapp in the list & Click it. It will display the App info page.
• In this page, just below the “Force Stop” button, there is a check box with name “Show notifications”. Uncheck this option and then the notifications will not appear in status bar.

To stop sound alerts, go to Whatsapp Settings -> Notifications -> Message notifications and choose the new message alerts as per your need.

Hide IOS Push Notifications

In IOS goto iPhone settings -> Notifications & choose Whatsapp. In this page, disable ‘Show in Notification bar’ under alerts. Also, there are option to switch of Sound Alerts & Badges in the same page. Related: WhatsApp Multiple Login Sessions in Same Mobile

3. Whatsapp Restore Backup

Whatsapp automatically creates a backup of your chat history daily. It can be found in your Smartphone device memory or SD card look for this folder: Whatsapp -> Databases -> “msgstore-yyyy-mm-dd.1.db.crypt8”. Apart from this Auto backup, you can also trigger a backup at any point of time from this option. Settings -> Chat Settings -> Backup conversations Now we know where the chat history backup is stored. Now the question is:

How to recover deleted Whatsapp messages?

Copy the latest auto backup file or all backup files to a different folder.

• Uninstall Whatsapp from application manager.
• Copy the latest Backup File to Whatsapp -> Databases folder & Rename it to current date in this format “msgstore-yyyy-mm-dd.1.db.crypt8”.
• Install Whatsapp again. This time, the app will ask you whether you want to restore the latest chat history.
• Click ok and then continue.

Now, you can see that all your chat history, which ever you backed up, are restored. This will be helpful when you are upgrading to a new Smartphone and want all old chat history in new mobile. Click here for More info from Whatsapp Official Blog.

4. How to Share Images from Facebook to Whatsapp?

This option is now available in the latest version of Facebook app for Smartphones. Update it from play store, Login to the app, browse updates from your Friends and then follow the below steps.

1. Click on an Image shared by your Friend
2. Now, click option button and you can see “Share External”
3. Click this option and a Popup menu, with list of installed apps in your Smartphone available for sharing the picture, will appear.
4. Click Whatsapp and choose a contact or group where you want to share the image from Facebook.

Still there is no option available to directly share Video or News updates. Hopefully these updates will be enabled in future.