Viber and WhatsApp - what they are, comparing Viber with WhatsApp and choosing the best one. A great alternative to WhatsApp and Viber, isn't it? How to use WhatsApp mobile app

Incredible facts

Today it is almost impossible to imagine your life without applications designed for messaging.

Whatsapp is one of the most popular applications, which helps you stay in touch with friends and acquaintances.

There are many features in this application that users are not even aware of, but which can significantly improve their text communication skills.

1. Become invisible on Whatsapp.

To remove evidence that you have read messages, go to Settings - Account - Privacy - Read Receipts and uncheck the box. However, if you keep this option disabled, it may become suspicious.

Before opening a questionable chat, you can also turn on airplane mode. Now you can read messages without receiving notifications. Sign out of messages before turning off Airplane mode and the message will remain unread by the person who sent it.

2.Hide visiting hours in WhatsApp.

If you want to avoid an awkward conversation and don't want others to see when you last visited the chat, this can be easily done.

Go to Settings – Account – Privacy - Visiting time, and choose who can see when you were last active.

3. Recover deleted WhatsApp conversations

If you accidentally deleted messages, don't worry because there is a way to restore conversations. However, you need to anticipate the situation.

To do this, you need to set up a backup of your chats. Go to . You can then choose to back up daily, weekly or monthly. Whatsapp will only copy your chats when the phone is on.

If you accidentally deleted a message or chats, you can restore them by reinstalling this app.

4. Quote a WhatsApp message as evidence

Instead of scrolling through hundreds of messages and taking a screenshot to prove that your friend promised to come 2 hours ago, use the quote feature.

To do this, you need to select the desired message by holding it and pressing left arrow(on Android) or the " button Answer" on iPhone to quote the desired message.

5. Make text bold, italic or strikethrough in Whatsapp

WhatsApp is very convenient to use for many things, but like all text messages, it does not convey intonation well. You can use bold, italics, and even strikethrough for these purposes.

If you want to put emphasis on a certain word, you need to use certain keyboard shortcuts.

To make it bold, you need to put an asterisk on both sides of the word, *like this*, for italics use underscore _words_, and for strikethrough there is a wavy hyphen ~like this~. You can also combine *_bold italics_*.

6. Turn off notifications in WhatsApp chats

For example, you want to know what time there will be a meeting tomorrow. But this simple question turned into a three-hour conversation between the rest of the chat participants.

You can now avoid annoying notifications by selecting the chat name at the top and selecting silent mode. Click on the button Do not disturb in the upper right corner and uncheck the option Show notifications.

7. Disable WhatsApp saving photos in your gallery

All files you receive are automatically saved in your phone's gallery. If your friends are sending photos that you don't want others to see, there is a way to avoid it. For iPhone, go to Settings - Chats and disable the option Media Visibility.

Additionally, you can hide photos received on WhatsApp by creating a .nomedia file.

For Android, you must have a file manager installed, which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. After downloading, go to Images/WhatsApp Images and create a file called .nomedia.

8. Save smartphone memory from unnecessary files in WhatsApp

When someone sends you pictures, gifs, audio and video files, they are downloaded automatically. To prevent them from clogging up your smartphone's internal memory, set it to download only the types of files you need when you connect to Wi-Fi or a mobile network.

For iOS Go to Settings – Data, where you can choose the download method. For Android, go to to find them.

9.Create a shortcut for a specific contact on WhatsApp

If you find it difficult to always look for your best friend in the general mass of WhatsApp chats, you can give preference to certain people (if you have Android). You can reduce your search time by saving shortcuts of your favorite WhatsApp contacts on your phone screen.

Click on the desired chat and in the menu (ellipsis in the upper right corner) and select " Add a shortcut", and a shortcut with the contact will appear on your phone screen.

10. Turn off sounds on WhatsApp and hide the chat from prying eyes

There are times when you don't want anyone to see your WhatsApp messages.

11. Send private messages to many users on WhatsApp

If you want to send one message to a number of people, you don't necessarily need to create a group chat where everyone can communicate with each other. In this case, it is better to choose a newsletter.

Click on the menu button in the top right corner and select New newsletter. This will allow you to send one message to many people, creating an individual chat with each one.

12. Transfer your WhatsApp messages to another phone

If you don't want to lose your messages if, for example, you buy a new phone, you can back up your messages.

Go to Settings – Chats – Chat backup and save a copy of messages daily, weekly or monthly. When you access WhatsApp from a new phone, the messages will be transferred to the new device.

13. Find important messages on WhatsApp easily

Many people know the feeling of having to scroll through several hundred messages to find a message about the desired address or meeting time. But there is an easier way to do this.

Long press the message you want and tap the icon stars.

You can now view all flagged messages in the menu where you will find the option Featured Posts.

14. Find out when your message has been read (checkmarks in WhatsApp)

Long press on the message you sent and tap the " icon info". A window will open where you will see who read and who received the message with the specified time when it happened.

15. Keep your Whatsapp group chat private

If you don't want friends of friends you've never met but are in a group chat with viewing your personal information, you can make the necessary changes.

You can restrict access to your profile photo and personal status by going to Settings – Account – Privacy, and selecting the desired options.

16. Mark unread chat on Whatsapp

Let's say you can't respond to a message right now, but you don't want to risk your friendship with the person. You can set a visual reminder that you have messages to respond to.

This can be done in the chat list, by highlighting the chat and marking it as unread.

Instead of dictating a message, you can use the virtual assistant Siri (for iPhone) to control WhatsApp without having to pick up your phone. To do this, you must have the latest version of WhatsApp installed, where you can say: " Hey Siri. Send WhatsApp to mom".

You can also read messages using Siri by saying: " Hey Siri. Read the latest WhatsApp messages" and you will hear the latest unread messages.

For Android users, use OK Google by asking " send WhatsApp to (name)".

18. Make a video call on WhatsApp

To make a video call, open a contact and click on the video icon.

19. Draw on photos or add emojis to WhatsApp

Take a photo in the app, then use the various tools at the top of the screen to draw on the photo, add emoji, or text.

20. Turn videos into GIFs on Whatsapp

WhatsApp already has a large gallery of GIFs that you can send to friends and acquaintances in messages. If you don't find the GIF you need, you can convert your own videos to GIF format. Click on the photo and video gallery icon, select the video and click the GIF button in the upper right corner.

For the iOS platform, it is very popular among iPhone users. Anyone who wants to save on texting can switch from SMS to this app to share text, photos, audio and video with other users for free. All functions are already included in the price of the program and there is no need to buy anything inside.

Of course, this development is not ideal and has a number of limitations, so we decided to offer you several alternatives to this wonderful service.

LINE

LINE is an application for making free calls and sending messages to contacts in your iPhone address book. This development has three key features: the ability to make voice calls, built-in emoticons that you can send to friends on Windows, Mac and other devices, and a user-friendly interface.

Download LINE for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes]

Skype

Skype not only supports video calls, but also text messages. To start using the service, just register, launch the program and enter your account information. You can communicate with iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac or Windows PC users via Wi-Fi or 3G.

Download Skype for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes]

Tango Video Calls

With the free Tango Video Calls app, iPhone users can send messages and make video calls over Wi-Fi and 3G networks. The program is very popular among iOS device owners. After installation, it automatically picks up contacts from the address book, allowing you to work with the application without registering for the service.

Download Tango Video Calls for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes]

GroupMe is a great alternative to WhatsApp. The program allows you to use a mobile client (for iPhone and iPad) to create user groups on the fly from your contact list and exchange text messages with them, as well as organize voice conferences. Messages can be transmitted both via the Internet and (in case of its absence or poor quality) in the form of regular SMS.

Download GroupMe for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes]

ChatON

Samsung's ChatON is a convenient messaging service. It allows you to easily and simply communicate with friends and family from anywhere in the world, regardless of what platform your mobile device is running on. With ChatON, you can chat one-on-one or in a group, chatting with multiple users in one window. You can create custom animated messages, handwrite notes and draw pictures, send photos and music.

Download ChatON for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad [iTunes]

Viber

Viber is one of the most famous WhatsApp alternatives. The Viber application allows you not only to chat, but also to make free voice calls from iPhone to iPhone, as well as phones running Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry OS. The program is absolutely free, demonstrates high quality voice transmission and works over Wi-Fi and 3G networks. After installing and verifying the phone number, the program synchronizes the list of contacts on the iPhone, after which it shows subscribers with Viber installed.

In light of the latest news on the sale of the WhatsApp messenger to Facebook (the deal was completed, Zuckerberg's company will pay $4 billion in cash and $12 billion in shares for the messenger), users will probably have to look for backup moves. After all, it is unknown whether Facebook will leave its competitor “afloat” or, after some time, will quietly close the project and absorb the WhatsApp development team (why keep it close...

1.XMS

XMS is a development of the Dutch company Ebuddy and has already managed to acquire a decent audience. Ebuddy has no less features than WhatsApp, plus a more interesting interface. It is possible to send messages from PC and Mac devices. So it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a mobile device at hand, you are always in touch.

2.Message ME

MessageMe is a relatively new app, but is already available on most platforms. Again, a lot of attention was paid to the interface. It is made strictly in Holo style. As you would expect, the main features in place are all kinds of emoticons, sending pictures and videos.

3. KIK Messenger

This contender already has over 100 million users and is the fastest and easiest messenger for smartphones. Kik doesn't use your phone number, so you don't have to worry about your safety. It also has everything for exchanging information - sending messages, photos, videos, even a built-in browser for easier browsing.

4. Facebook messenger

I hope there is no need to explain anything here, this is an application from Facebook itself. Of course, a Facebook account is required. But the advantage is that the message can be sent from anywhere, from a mobile platform or from a computer. Not without its shortcomings, but recently it has become very beautiful.

The WhatsApp application for the iOS platform is very popular among iPhone users. Anyone who wants to save on texting can switch from SMS to this app to share text, photos, audio and video with other users for free. All functions are already included in the price of the program and there is no need to buy anything inside.

Of course, this development is not ideal and has a number of limitations, so we decided to offer you several alternatives to this wonderful service.

LINE is an app for making free calls and sending messages to contacts in your iPhone address book. This development has three key features: the ability to make voice calls, built-in emoticons that you can send to friends on Windows, Mac and other devices, and a user-friendly interface.

Download LINE for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Skype

Download Skype for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Tango Video Calls

Download Tango Video Calls for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Download GroupMe for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

ChatON

Download ChatON for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad

Viber

Download Viber for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad

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