Advanced WhatsApp Tricks

1. Hide WhatsApp Images from Gallery

The images we get on WhatsApp include a lot of memes & funny pictures and we don’t really need them in our phone gallery. Fortunately, there’s a tweak which lets you hide WhatsApp images from Gallery.

On an iPhone, you simply need to go to Phone Settings->Privacy->Photosand turn off WhatsApp. That’s it, you will no longer see any WhatsApp pictures in your iPhone’s Photos app.

However, hiding WhatsApp pictures from Gallery in Android is a slightly lengthy process. Here’s what you need to do:

• Open whichever File Manager app you have installed. You can check out thebest File Manager apps for Android, if you don’t have one installed. In file manager, Go to the WhatsApp folder and then Media.

• Then, rename the “WhatsApp Images” and “WhatsApp Video” folders to “.WhatsApp Images” and “.WhatsApp Video” respectively. This will hide the WhatsApp images and videos from your Android smartphone’s gallery.

2. Get Desktop Notifications

We do know that WhatsApp Web brings you notifications but for it to work, you have to keep a tab with WhatsApp Web running alongside. To get desktop notifications independently, you can use a Chrome extension dubbed “WAToolkit“. Once added, you only need to start WhatsApp Web once and then, the Chrome extension will bring you WhatsApp notifications even when Chrome is closed. When the notification is clicked, it will take you to WhatsApp Web.

You can also use apps like Pushbullet or its alternatives to use WhatsApp right on your PC.

3. Run Multiple WhatsApp Accounts on a Single Device (Android only)

Some of us have an Android smartphone with dual SIM functionality, which makes us want to have two separate WhatsApp accounts but unfortunately, WhatsApp restricts users to only one account on a device. Well, the good news is that there’s a workaround, thanks to Android’s multi-user feature. Here’s what you need to do:

• Go to your phone’s Settings->Users and “Add new user“. Complete the whole setup to create a new user.
• Once you have created a new user, install WhatsApp on the new user account and enter the other number you want to use here.

• That’s it, you can then easily switch between users from the notification center and use multiple WhatsApp accounts with ease.

4. Recover Deleted WhatsApp Messages (Android only)

If you’ve accidentally deleted your WhatsApp chats, you can easily recover them because WhatsApp backups your chats every day at 2 AM. Here’s how you can recover your deleted WhatsApp messages:

• Uninstall and then re-install WhatsApp.
• Sign up with the same number you used WhatsApp with previously. You will be prompted that a backup has been found.
• Tap “Restore” to start the restoring process. Once done, you will see all your messages back and healthy.

If you want to restore messages from an older backup, here’s what you need to do:

• Open file manager and go to folder WhatsApp->Databases.
• Select the database you want to restore and rename it from msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt8 to msgstore.db.crypt8. This will replace the most recent database with your preferred database, so when you start restoring messages, your older messages will be recovered.

5. Add WhatsApp Shortcuts Widget to Notification Center (iPhone only)

WhatsApp on iPhone does not let you add any shortcuts to the homescreen or widget to the notification center but there’s an app that lets you do that. The Shortcut for WA Plus app lets add WhatsApp contacts to the widget area of iPhone’s notification center. The process is pretty easy, so here’s how to use it:

• Install Shortcut for WA Plus app from the App Store. Open the app and allow the permissions it asks.
• Tap the plus button below and select the contact you want to add a shortcut for.

• Once done, go to the Notification center and tap “Edit” in the widgets area. Add the “WA Shortcuts” widget.

• That’s all, as you will start to see the contact shortcuts, which will take you straight to the WhatsApp chat.

6. Using WhatsApp on PC Without a Smartphone

It’s sad if you don’t have a smartphone but thankfully, there are ways you can still use WhatsApp. You will need a PC though and an Android emulator app like Bluestacks to run a fully fledged Android built right on your PC. After you’ve installed the emulator, you can set it up like you would do on an Android device and then, you can install WhatsApp as well. When WhatsApp verifies your number, you can simply enter the code from your phone.

There are some very cool Android emulator apps for PC, check out our list ofbest Android emulators.

7. Move Your WhatsApp Conversations from One Phone to Another (Android only)

Switching to a new phone and wondering how to get all your WhatsApp chats on the new phone? With the new Google Drive integration, things have become a lot easier. Here’s what you need to do:

• On your older Android smartphone, go to WhatsApp Settings->Chat and calls->Chat backup and create a back up on Google Drive.
• Install WhatsApp on your new phone. When you open it, enter the same number as your older account.
• It will prompt you about the Google Drive backup. Then, choose the Google account you want to save the found backup in.

• That will make sure your new Android smartphone has all your old WhatsApp chats.

8. Send Different File Types (APK, ZIP, PDF) (Android only)

WhatsApp lets you share different types of media content but it still lags when it comes to diverse file types like ZIP, PDF and APKs. The good news is, there’s a way, thanks to third party apps. This is how you can send different file types on Android:

• Install Dropbox on your Android smartphone and login. Then, install Cloud Send. Once CloudSend is installed, open the app and tap “Setup” after the intros.
• Give CloudSend permission in Dropbox by tapping “Allow“, as you can see in the screenshot below. A “CloudSend” folder will be created in your Dropbox storage.

• Now, open the file manager app and choose the file you want to send through WhatsApp. Press hold on the file and tap “Share” and choose CloudSend. This will upload your file to the CloudSend folder on Dropbox.

• After the upload is completed, you will have options to “Send” or “Copy” the link. Select Send and then, tap WhatsApp to share the link with your friends.

• The recipient will be able to view the file if his/her smartphone has apps installed to open different file types. The link can also be used to manually download the file from the browser.