WhatsApp is by far the most widely used instant messaging application in Zimbabwe simply because of the fact that it’s free to use, and its bundle packages by internet services providers are the cheapest. The app has become an integral part of our lives to the extent that most of us could literally go insane or by the very least feel a slight sense of depression if we go offline for even for a few hours. Besides it playing a pivotal role in our modern social lives – friendships and ‘other’ romantic relations, WhatsApp has even gone as far as being appreciated by formal organizations as a mode of communication. With the separate release “WhatsApp Business”, account users have the capability to advertise their products in a catalogue view that’s very intuitive to use and includes all the essential details from the photo of the product to its price tag.
As we appreciate the many things that WhatsApp has enabled us to do: from giving the shy guy the anonymity he needs to propose to that one girl LOL, to allowing a whole class of students to attend an online lesson in a chat group – we as TZP thought we’d share with you a few tips and tricks that’d definitely be helpful for regular WhatsApp users.
Retaining image quality when sending images
By default, WhatsApp was developed with an image compression feature that significantly reduces the quality of images before they’re sent. The essence of this to the owners is for WhatsApp to remain a low data usage application but at times we all need that clear picture with its original quality. To avoid having the image quality reduced, send the image as a document attachment as shown below:
1. Click the attachment icon within a chat
2. Click on Document, then Browse other docs…
3. Navigate in your phone to the local of the image you wish to send.
4. Do not be worried about the preview of the image, once you complete these steps it’s done.
Searching for an old message
Having to manually scroll between chats looking for an old message is a very tedious process considering that the average WhatsApp user on a daily basis receives 500+ messages from chats and groups combined. The star feature does exist for the purpose of bookmarking important messages for easy access but sometimes you don’t realize the necessity of a message until a little later. The process of looking for an old message is simple really, the only thing that’s needed is one unique word that was included in the text to use as a search term in the search bar as shown below:
1. Open WhatsApp and click on the search icon at the top right corner of the screen.
2. Type out any random word that you’re sure was included within the message.
As seen from the search above using the search term ‘noodle’ WhatsApp goes through all the messages and gives results of all occurrences of the word in all the chats. The results are categorized based on the date the message was sent (from the most recent going to the oldest) so remembering a time period can be useful as well.
To search for a shared contact use ‘wa.me’ as a search term and to search for a WhatsApp group use ‘chat.whatsapp’.
Avoiding having voice notes play in your music library
Since our music players are designed to scan for all audio files within your phone’s memory it ends up including voice notes and categorizing them as music too. This becomes very undesirable and sometimes even embarrassing when you’re shuffling your music in public. With the latest music players there is an option to exclude a certain group of folders from showing up in the music player – this is the method we use to avoid having your WhatsApp audio from playing in-between your music. An example is shown below on Samsung Music (Android 11 version).
1. Open samsung music (or any other music player).
2. Click on the three dots at the top right corner.
3. Select ‘Hide Folders’ and navigate to all the folders you do not want to include in your library.
Bonus
This feature isn’t exactly convenient as opposed to the other available techniques but it might just be what you need to look cool and techy amongst your friends. WhatsApp has the option to use a QR code to connect to a friend’s phone without having to share your contact details or sending a contact as an attachment. This method is very easy but it requires both devices to have an internet connection for the link to be established.
Go to My Contacts in WhatsApp and click on the QR Code icon next to the New Contact label.
2. The second person performs the same procedure. One user chooses MY CODE and the other chooses SCAN CODE to establish a connection.
In as much as this application has become a bit addictive to a lot of us we really can’t do anything about it so the best we can do is make the user experience as optimal as possible. If you’re someone that has eye sight problems or gets headaches from excessive screen-time then the dark mode feature might be something worth looking into as well. As we wrap this up please make an effort to update to the latest WhatsApp version if you haven’t already because you might just be as pleased about the new feature as we are. Traditionally we used to listen to voice notes or other audio sent by a user within the chat of that user, but with the new version you’re now flexible to reply to other messages as you listen to audio from a foreign chat! We know what you’re thinking and we said it too, IT WAS ABOUT TIME!!
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