Step 1. Download the WhatsApp app from the App store (Apple) or the Play store (Android).
Step 2. Open WhatsApp
Step 3. Tap Continue on the pop-up.
Tap Allow on both boxes to grant WhatsApp access to your files and contacts.
- Enter your phone number.
- Tap OK to confirm the number you entered.
- Enter the verification code that’s texted to you.
Tap Next.
With all that done, you’re now officially signed up for WhatsApp and ready to start using it!
Customize your Profile
Aside from adding an avatar to your name and number, you can also personalize the About description. The default status on your profile is, “Hey there, I am Using WhatsApp” and that can get a little old, especially if most of your contacts didn’t bother to change it either. Don’t be like that. Change your status to anything you want, or even use some of the pre-made statuses if you don’t feel like making up a new one. WhatsApp has plenty of choices like: Available, Busy, At school, At work, In a meeting, Battery about to die, Sleeping, and a bunch more.
- In the Settings pane under Edit Profile, locate the About line and tap.
- You’ll see the Currently Set To status and you can choose from the premade ones.
- You can also write an original status if you prefer.
- Your status will only be updated on other people’s phones when they turn on data or Wi-Fi.
Determine privacy levels
WhatsApp gives you a range of choices about who can see you on WhatsApp and how much information the app can divulge about your activities. You can set Last Seen, Profile Photo, About, and Status to be seen by everyone, only your contacts, or no one. Last Seen shows when you were last logged into the app. It also indicates your live location, if you have that enabled in your smartphone settings. You can also choose who can see your status updates. You can also use privacy settings to block contacts. A blocked person cannot call or send messages to you.
The Read Receipts feature, which you can enable via a checkbox, sends notifications when either you or your contacts read a message sent by the other. When off, you will not send or receive receipts, except in group chats.
Add new contacts
To view contacts in WhatsApp, you don’t have to do much. That’s because all your contacts who use WhatsApp are already known without you having to add them manually. WhatsApp defines contacts by phone number, so anyone in your address book who has their phone number on WhatsApp is immediately revealed when you join. However, you may want to invite contacts who are not already on WhatsApp, as well as people you know who are not currently in your contact list. To add domestic users to your contacts, do the following:
- Tap the chat icon.
- Tap New Contact.
- Add the name and phone number of that person.
- You can invite a new user by scrolling down to the bottom of the window and tapping Invite Friends to WhatsApp, where you can choose to send an email or text message invite.
If you are adding an international friend, make sure to do the following.
- When adding the contact’s phone number to your address book, start with a plus sign (+).
- Type the country code, a nation-specific numerical prefix, followed by the phone number. Search online to find the proper country code if you don’t know it.
- Remove any leading zeros or calling codes from the actual phone number after entering the country code.
Start Chatting
Chatting is the easy part because all you have to do now is select your friend, and start yapping. As you start your chat, you will see an alert telling you that your communication is encrypted so that no one will ever be able to view or listen in on your conversation. Your friend gets a notification on their phone that you’ve sent them a message, and so it goes.
- Select the person you want to chat with.
- Tap the chat box at the bottom of the screen.
- Type in your message and feel free to add emojis, images (Tap the + symbol or paperclip, videos, or voice messages using the icons to the right of the chat box. The little square lets you add a sticker.
- The camera lets you add a photo or video, and the microphone lets you press and hold to immediately record a voice message in the app. You can also format your text with bold, italic, strikethrough, or code.
- Then tap the arrow icon to send.
- If you want call the person tap the green phone symbol on the top right corner.
But what if you want to send a message to more than one person? There are two ways to do that: Form a group or broadcast to a group. Which option you choose depends on how you want to communicate and what response you seek. The difference between group messages and broadcast messages is that with group messages, it can be a free-for-all — everyone can talk to everyone else in a free exchange. With broadcast list messages, it’s more of a top-down communication — you are speaking to a group, but they can reply only individually and privately to you and not to each other.
Form a group
Group chats let you share messages, photos, and videos with up to 256 people at one time. You can also name your group, mute or customize notifications, and more. A group setting that lets only admins send messages to a group, can streamline communications in specific circumstances.
- Tap the chat icon.
- Select New Group.
- Tap to add all the participants you want to include (up to 256).
- Tap Next.
- Add a subject for the chat and an icon.
- Tap Create.
- In the resulting chat dialog, begin your encrypted message with stickers, images, or a voice message.
Broadcast Lists
The WhatsApp’s Broadcast List feature lets you send a single message to multiple contacts who will not see that the message has been sent to others. Only contacts with your number in their address book can receive your broadcast messages and can only reply to you individually via chat, as opposed to group messages.
Back up your chats
Say you’re finished chatting. Now what? After your chats are over, you can choose how to dispose of them. Chats are immediately stored in your handset memory. But you can be more systematic about it and back up your chats automatically or manually by tapping the Backup button. You can also choose to include videos or not. For iPhones, you can backup to iCloud; with Android, you can back up to Google Drive. WhatsApp advises disabling cellular data when backing up to or restoring chats from iCloud or Google Drive, since that action may involve data charges. You can also archive, clear, or delete all chats if you no longer need them.
