WhatsApp just keeps on growing, adding new features and users all the
time. The prospect of sending texts and making calls for free has
tempted a whopping 800 million people onto the Facebook-owned app at
last count.
If you're one of them, chances are there are a few
elements of the app that still seem bewildering or annoying - the good
news is many of them can be fixed if you know where to look.
So
sit back, check out these WhatsApp tips and tricks and you'll be
chucking messages to your buddies left, right and center without having
to worry about getting yourself tangled in a web of pointless chatting.

When you switch to a newer iPhone, or replace your old Android, you can
take your chat history with you. If you use a microSD card, it's as
simple as
Menu > Settings > Chat settings > Backup conversations.
Move the card over to the new phone, install WhatsApp, and
Restore when prompted. If the backup is on internal storage, you can use a file explorer to find the
/sdcard/WhatsApp/ folder and move the contents manually.
Support for backing up to Google Drive is due to be added in the next build. Check the
Apple website for iOS instructions.

When you look at a contact on WhatsApp there's usually a "last seen"
time under their name, which tells you when they last checked the app.
If you don't want people to be able to see when you're using WhatsApp, you can set your "last seen" to
Nobody. Go to
Settings > Account > Privacy,
but be aware that it will also prevent you from being able to see other
people's last seen time. You can also hide your profile photo, status,
and turn off read receipts in the
Privacy menu.

You can tell when your message has been read in WhatsApp when the two
ticks next to it in the chat window turn blue. Sometimes you may want to
get a little extra detail.
Just tap and hold on the message and then tap the
Info icon, and you'll get a precise time. In iOS, you can also tap and drag the message to the left to get the time.

There's no way to do this on iOS without jailbreaking, but on Android
you have a wide choice of security apps that will enable you to password
or PIN protect your WhatsApp chats. Try
Messenger and Chat Block,
AppLock, or
Smart AppLock.
Some of these apps will even snap a photo if someone tries to access
the app without the right PIN, so you can catch snoopers. On Windows
Phone you can try
WhatsApp Locker. If you're on BlackBerry, then try
Lock for Whats Messenger.

If you have the Chrome browser installed on your computer or laptop then go to
WhatsApp Web and follow the instructions for your phone.
You'll need to make sure your phone is connected to the Internet,
ideally through Wi-Fi, because the web app still syncs everything from
your phone. Start up WhatsApp, find the
WhatsApp Web option in the menu, and scan the QR code in the browser.
You can now start chats and get notifications right there on your computer. It doesn't work on iOS.

You probably don't want all the images from WhatsApp to appear in your
Camera Roll on iOS, or in your Gallery or Photos app on Android.
It's easy to sort on iOS, just go to
Settings > Privacy > Photos and toggle
WhatsApp off.
On Android, use a file manager like
ES File Explorer, and go to
sdcard/WhatsApp/Media,then tap
New at the bottom left in any folder you don't want shared, and create a file called
.nomedia.
Your images won't pop up in the gallery anymore. Woohoo!

Sometimes group conversations create a lot of noise. You may not want
to leave the conversation, but you probably don't want a notification
every time someone chips in.
If you're using an iPhone, then open the group chat, tap the subject to get the
Group Info screen, and then tap
Mute.
In Android, open the chat, tap the
Menu button, and then tap
Mute. You can specify a time period, or you can remove the tick in the
Show notifications box to turn them off permanently.

WhatsApp backs up messages on your device every morning at 4AM. The
easiest way to recover a recently deleted message is to uninstall the
app and reinstall it.
During the process it will ask if you want
to restore from backup. This will cover the last seven days. If you want
to restore an older chat on Android, use an app like
ES File Explorer and go to
sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases to see your backups.
Rename the file you want to
msgstore.db.crypt and then go to
Settings > Apps > WhatsApp > Clear data, then start it up and restore when prompted.

This tip only works for Android. If there are certain chats that you
return to every day, it might be a time saver to set up a shortcut on
your home screen that goes directly to them.
All you need to do is tap and hold on the chat in question, and then choose
Add conversation shortcut from the pop-up menu.
It will appear in a space on your home screen. You can tap and hold on it to drag it around, just like an app icon or widget.

You might want to save some time by sending out a bulk message, but
that doesn't necessarily mean that you want all the recipients to know
it's a group message.
The broadcast feature let's you send out
the same message to multiple contacts, but it will appear as a private
message between the two of you for them. In Android, tap
Menu, and then
New broadcast. In iOS, tap
Broadcast Lists on the
Chats screen, and then tap
New List.
If they reply, it will only go to you, not the full list.