Last updated on June 16th, 2023 at 07:48 am
Did you know that WhatsApp has text formatting? You can make your messages bold, italic, underlined, and more.
You can also use multiple styles at once. For example, bold amakealics make words look like this:
“Formatting” refers to how text looks, by altering the font, bolding or italicizing, or putting a line through it.
Formatting refers to how text looks, by altering the font, bolding or italicizing, or putting a line through it. You can format almost any part of text for WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
You may also format text in other apps and programs like Google Docs. Different options are available in each program, as not all apps see the same formatting options. Keep in mind that not every device will interpret formatting (bolded or italicized) correctly. Sometimes the reader will think you’ve sent plain text only because their device doesn’t pick up on special characters.
It’s easy to format text in WhatsApp chats.
WhatsApp supports text formatting, so you can type messages in bold, italics and strike through. It’s also possible to add a monospace font for code snippets and other stand-out text.
Here’s how it works:
- To write in bold text, put an asterisk on either side of the phrase or sentence you want to be in bold. For example, *this is a test* becomes
Type the phrase you want to be bold inside asterisks (*), like *this*.
While the formatting options are fairly limited, you can mix and match these formatting options by surrounding different phrases with whatever characters they need in order to look how you want them to. For example, if you wanted to make a statement that was both bold and italicized, you could type *_like this.*_
Try it out! The more you use WhatsApp’s text formatting capabilities, the faster it’ll become second nature to approach your messages like a zany greeting card or an SAT question.
Type the phrase you want to be italicized inside underscores (_), like _this_.
Type the phrase you want to be italicized inside underscores (_), like _this_.
Type the phrase you want to be a strikethrough inside tildes (~), like ~this~.
- Type the phrase you want to be a strikethrough inside tildes (~), like ~this~.
- Send the message and it should strike the text through, appearing like this.
Using strikethrough is a great way to make a quick comment on something someone else has said or written, or make your own words look more humorous or sarcastic.
You can add an apostrophe (‘) to a phrase to underline it, like ‘underlined’.
You can also underline text in WhatsApp. To do this, you need to add an apostrophe (‘) at the beginning and end of the phrase, for example ‘underlined’. Use the backtick key (`) on your keyboard to access it faster.
Underlining is useful when you want to emphasize a phrase, but don’t want it to stand out too much as bold text might do. You should avoid using both bold and underline at the same time.
To type monospaced numbers and letters, put them in backticks (`), like `1234567890`.
If you want to write a phone number, a person’s name, or anything else that could be confused with snippets of code, use backticks to type it out.
So instead of writing:
Have you met Edward? He is the owner of 9588675309.
You could write:
Have you met `Edward`? He is the owner of `9588675309`.
You can also use backticks to make what’s called “monospace text,” which is useful for when you need to write something that requires precise spacing.
I’m going to use monospace text for a second, so that you can see what it looks like. It’s not terribly useful for regular messaging, but there are some cases where it’s good to have.
Let’s say you want to ask a friend who knows how to write code if they can help you with something. You need them to know exactly what your code looks like, and sending them a screenshot won’t cut it — the point is that they need to know what you’ve written to understand why your program isn’t working properly. That’s when a monospace text comes in handy:
““`java
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Prints “Hello, World” to the terminal window.
System. out.println(“Hello, World”);
}
}“`
You can mix and match these formatting options by surrounding different phrases with whatever characters they need to look how you want them to.
You can mix and match these formatting options by surrounding different phrases with whatever characters they need to look how you want them to.
You can use the formatting options in any combination. There are also no rules on what order you apply the special characters to text, so something can be bold and italicized at the same time, or any other combination you could think of.
You can use the formatting options on different parts of your text.
For example, if a sentence consists of three phrases, each phrase can have a different format applied to it.
You can use all these formatting options on different parts of your text at the same time! If a message contains all three formats (bold, italics, strikethrough), then all three will appear in that specific order throughout that message.
Formatting your text makes chats more clear and more fun!