WhatsApp – rich text (bold, italics, strike-through), how? and Google docs sharing

WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app- thought that it can claim this title as the no. of users has just surpassed 1 billion! WeChat – the most popular messaging app in China has got 700million users mid April 2016. Click here for the latest statistics of others too.  When Facebook bought the app for a whopping US$19billlion in 2014 it had just 450 million. So for $19/user, it seems not that expensive now?  If you got the latest update (which has been (or will soon) be pushed to your device if you have auto-update set in your device). If your WhatsApp verion is 2.12.17 on iOS or version 2.12.535 on Android or newer, then you can now type rich text (such as bold, italics and strike-through).  This is how

…and it might just change the way you talk to your friends?

It’s not immediately obvious how to access the new options since the app does not include them in the small selection menu you can access by pressing and holding on a word in iOS.

• Bold: Add an asterisk () before and after the specific words or phrases you want to embolden e.g. *hello

• Italics: Add an underscore () before and after your chosen words or phrases e.g. _hello

• Strikethrough: Add a tilde (~) before and after the words or phrases you want to strike a line through e.g. ~hello~

But  in order to use (and be seen) text formatting both sender and recipient needs to be on latest version of WhatsApp.

Another feature was also introduced in WhatsApp recently – that is the option to share PDF files in your local drive or shared in your Google Drives. For files in your Google Drive, they would be converted to PDF and stored locally on the device instead of being shared as a cloud-based document. In order to share files with others, users need to choose the ‘Browse other docs’ option in ‘Document’ under ‘Attachments’. Google Drive files as PDFs can be shared with people on older versions (than 2.12.535) of the app on Android as well as iOS users.

Credits: info sources http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/WhatsApp-for-Android-adds-bold-italics-text-formatting-and-Google-Drive-document-sharing/articleshow/51452069.cms,  http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/656773/WhatsApp-How-To-Send-Bold-Italic-Strikethrough-Text-Messages; http://thesocialtricks.com/whatsapp-text-formatting/2/