INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF WHATSAPP
WhatsApp is a popular social media with about 2 billion users worldwide. A lot of persons have WhatsApp installed but very few understand how to maximize the use of WhatsApp. Some use WhatsApp sorely for chatting, a few others use it to showcase their businesses via a status update but there are a lot of features in Whatsapp that the vast majority of its users are yet to have knowledge of and so they can’t maximize such features. Learning how to maximize the use of WhatsApp is the focus of this article.
BENEFITS OF USING WHATSAPP
There are some benefits of using WhatsApp
1. Low data consumption
2. It offers free international messaging
3. Chatting with a group of people at once is possible via WhatsApp
4. It works on iPhone, blackberry, android, windows phones
5. You can make voice calls and video calls at no extra charges
6. It is easy to use
There are some features in WhatsApp that are not well known to most of its users which would help them maximize its use if they know about it. Some of them are:
1. Pin a chat: When you use this feature for a particular chat, it will always be at the top of your chat list especially if you chat with that number a lot. It makes it easier to find and connect with the chat. You are allowed to pin just 3 contacts on your WhatsApp. To pin a chat, press and hold the chat, an icon like a thumb pin will pop up. Click on the thumb pin icon and you are good to go.
2. Check the status of a message you sent to a WhatsApp group: This is another way to maximize your use of WhatsApp. Have you ever sent a message to a WhatsApp group and you were left to wonder if some persons read the message and choose to ignore it or it never got delivered? Worry no more. You can now check the status of your WhatsApp group message using the following steps.
a. Press and hold the message you want to check its status.
b. Click on the 3 white dots at the top right of your screen
c. Click on info and you will see who the message has been delivered to and who has read it.
3. Make a group voice/video call: Yes you can call up to 8 persons via WhatsApp at the same time. It saves you the time and airtime of having to talk to each person separately.
4. Delete option: Yes you got it right, you can delete any message sent in error either to a WhatsApp group or an individual but it has a time frame of 7 minutes. To do the above, press and hold the message, then click on the delete icon that appears at the top right of your phone screen. The options will be displayed which reads; delete for me or delete for all. Click on the appropriate option that suits you then.
5.WhatsApp QR codes: WhatsApp QR Code is a great feature that helps users easily add new contacts. It allows users to share their contact details with other WhatsApp users through their unique QR codes. All you need to do to add a contact via QR code is to scan the user’s code. To find your QR code, click on your WhatsApp settings and you will find your QR code at the top right in front of your name and profile picture. The above are some of the ways to maximize the use of WhatsApp.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, WhatsApp is more than just a chat platform. If you can harness its features then and only then can you maximize its usage to get the most from it.
