WhatsApp’s best features every user should know

WhatsApp started out as a simple and easy instant messaging app. The company gradually started introducing new features to make WhatsApp more interactive and useful. After a decade of its existence WhatsApp now offers multiple features for users to do more than just exchange text messages.

WhatsApp is also working on features it will roll out in the future. Users can except features like 'dark mode' and 'fingerprint unlock' soon on WhatsApp. Today we'll highlight five best features of WhatsApp that are accessible to users now. For those who aren't aware of these features can start using them immediately.

WhatsApp Pay

WhatsApp Pay is currently running in beta but this feature is easily available for any user. Its official launch is scheduled for the end of this year. WhatsApp Pay as the name suggests, is a built-in UPI-based payments system on the app. Users can send and receive money directly from WhatsApp chats. To get on WhatsApp Pay one needs to know another user with this feature. Once a WhatsApp Pay invitation is sent the receiver can start using it.

Group invitation

WhatsApp groups have the infamous reputation of being annoying and pesky. There's a WhatsApp group for literally everything from family to friends and even work. For those who wish to avoid being added to WhatsApp groups there's one way to do it. Under the settings menu, select Account > Privacy > Groups. Here, you can choose 'Everyone' which lets anyone add you to groups. 'Nobody' restricts people from adding you to groups and instead sends an invitation which expires in 3 days. 'My Contacts' will only allow contacts you've saved to add you in groups.

Hide read receipts

Another popular privacy feature on WhatsApp is the ability to hide read receipts. Doing this prevents others from knowing if you've read their message or not. Users can enable this feature under Settings > Privacy > Read receipts. Also, enabling this will hide read receipts of other users too. Note that read receipts don't apply to group chats.

Delete for everyone

One feature that got WhatsApp users pretty excited was 'Delete for Everyone'. This feature lets users revoke messages they may have sent by mistake. To do this, long press the message and select 'Delete for Everyone' from the pop-up menu. Once it's revoked a message will be displayed in place of it saying "This message was deleted". This will be visible to the recipient too notifying them that a message has been deleted.

Data limit

WhatsApp is a data friendly app and works swiftly even on low-specced apps. In addition, it offers a host of data saving features on WhatsApp for users. These features can be found under Settings > Data and storage usage. Here, users can control if media should be downloaded on mobile data, Wi-Fi and roaming. There's also a low data usage option which reduces the data consumption during a call.