WhatsApp is the social network most used by Spaniards – according to data from the 2020 Social Networks Study published by IAB together with Elogia – and it is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. In each update, the application includes new functionalities that, although they are slight, can go unnoticed. However, each of these new ‘tricks’ is very useful for heavy users .
Before the long-awaited introduction of group video calls of more than four people, which occurred this year on the edge of lockdown; and the much commented option of deleting messages once sent, WhatsApp already allowed us to incorporate bold and italics to give relevance to our texts, recover photos deleted by mistake, activate messages that self-destruct …
Specifically, WhatsApp groups allow a series of useful functionalities, such as mute, or personalized responses as mentions that, of course, are visible to the rest of the group. But, if you have to reply to a specific message to a single member of the group, you can do it privately without having to manually open the individual conversation window in a very simple way.
First, you must select the message you want to reply privately, holding your finger for a moment until it is indicated. Then press the options button, which will appear in the head of the group in the form of three vertical dots. In this short menu the option ‘Reply to the private’ will appear. You just have to select this option, and a conversation window will automatically open with the person you want to reply to (the usual one if you regularly chat with her, or a new one if it is the first time you do so). The most interesting thing about this option is that the message you write appears in response to the message you want to reply to; that is, the text of your contact is included, so that the person in question knows the context of the conversation. In essence, they are three simple steps:
- Select desired message
- Open the menu in the chat header
- Reply in individual conversation window
Remember that the message you want to reply to is transferred from the group chat directly to the individual conversation, so that your interlocutor knows exactly what you are talking about, without having to rewrite the content again.
This functionality is very useful if we want to keep private some aspects that can be partially shared in group chats, or to sneakily comment on what has been said in a certain conversation. However, this option is only used to replicate a certain message to the same person who sent it. If we want to comment on a message from a group member with another person from the same group chat, we will have to continue using the ‘forward’ option.
Other very interesting tricks in WhatsApp group chats, increasingly adaptable to the needs of users, range from the possibility of filtering who sends messages to the group, to assigning several administrators or avoiding the saving of multimedia content.
