Become a WhatsApp messaging master

With more than one billion people in over 180 countries using it, WhatsApp has become the world’s favourite messaging service since its launch in 2010.

There’s also no doubt that it’s made our social lives considerably easier, albeit more stressful, with the introduction of the group chat.

So if you want to dodge a message or hide when you’ve been online, these WhatsApp hacks will change the way you use the messaging service for good.

This is a handy little trick for really emphasising your point in the digital world. By adding an asterisk (*), e.g. *hello*, you can bold a word in your message; by adding an underscore (_) you can italicize your chosen word, e.g. _goodbye_; or if you want to strickethrough a word, use a tilde (~), e.g. ~please~.

The WhatsApp blue tick is the bane of many lives but you can banish it for good by simply changing your settings. Click on Settings > Account > Privacy > Read Receipts and you’ll no longer have to explain why you haven’t responded to that awkward message.

It’s not just the blue ticks that are the ultimate giveaway of a social snub though. The Last Seen Today time at the top of every message has left many red faces but there is a way around it. Go to Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen and you can ignore those potential dates guilt free.

Losing your phone can be a major inconvenience, especially when you’ve lost you WhatsApp chats, but there is a way to prevent losing any messages in future. Go to Settings > Chats > Chat Backup > Backup and all your future messages and media will be saved in an online Cloud.

WhatsApp group chats can become messy and complicated affairs with screen shots being grabbed to prove who said what. You can highlight quotes directly by holding down the message then clicking on the top left arrow. This will take a min-screen shot and embed it into your next message so you can dig up all those past conversations.