WhatsApp Tips for iPhone Users – Start Group Chats, Save Profile Photos, Create iCloud Backups and more

While FaceTime is an amazing video call solution that only Apple users have the privilege of using, the popularity of WhatsApp can’t be denied and even iPhone users rely on this app to stay in touch with friends and family. If you use WhatsApp in your iPhone and would like to take more advantage of its functionality, there are some tips that are worth keeping in mind. For instance, many people wonder how yo save profile photos, start a new Group Chat or create a backup of all their conversations on WhatsApp. Here we will go through some practical things that you can do to get the most of this app on your device.

How to start a new group chat

Creating a new group chat is simple, but it is worth going through the steps in case you don’t know how to do it.

1. Scroll up in WhatsApp and you will see a search field and two buttons under it. One of them is New Group.
2. Tap on it and enter a name for the group
3. Add participants from your Contacts list
4. Click “Done” and you will be able to send messages to the group

How to prevent WhatsApp from taking over Camera Roll

If you are in a group chat with friends and family, it is likely that they share a large number of photos and videos. While some may be worth keeping, others are irrelevant and even annoying. The issue is that by default, all media is downloaded by WhatsApp and saved to your Camera Roll, which would fill your Photos app with pointless images. Thanks to a WhatsApp update, it is possible to stop this. You can disable auto media download on a per conversation and group basis. Just go to each of the groups that spam you with photos and tap the name on the top, the select “Save Incoming Media” and then “Never”.

How to create iCloud Backups of WhatsApp Conversations

You can setup and manage backups following the below steps:

1. Open the app and tap on Settings
2. Tap Chat Settings and go to Backup
3. Now you can setup auto-backups. It is also possible to tap on Backup Now to backup the chats straight away.

How to reply quickly to messages via notifications

iOS’s native notification gives you the possibility of replying to messages received in WhatsApp without even having to open the app. Once you get a notification on the Lock screen, you can swipe left and tap the “Reply” button. This is a useful option when you are using other apps and get a WhatsApp message notification. You can swipe down on the notification to see a text input area and the option to Send. There you can type in the reply.

How to share PDFs

WhatsApp gives you the possibility of sharing PDFs stored in iCloud, DropBox or other apps. In the conversation view, tap the Attach icon, then select “Share Document” and select the source of the document you want to share. This will bring the iOS built-in Document Picker, which would show iCloud Drive by default. However, you can tap “More” and add other services such as Dropbox.

How to star important messages to view them later

You may have received and read an important message but if you were busy at the time and couldn’t reply, you may want to make sure that you get back to the sender. To make sure that you don’t forget to send a response, you can mark or “star” the message. All you need to do is to long press on the message and select the “Star” icon. You can see the messages marked by going to Settings and selecting “Starred Messages”.

How to use 3D Touch for Quick Actions

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners can rely on the 3D Touch features supported, including Quick Actions and Peek. It is possible to touch a conversation to see its contents quickly and it also works for media. There are practical shortcuts that will save you time including the option to jump directly to starred messages or to take a photo quickly.

How to broadcast messages

You can send the same message to multiple contacts without having to create a group, using the Broadcast option. Simple tap “Broadcast Lists” at the top-left from the “Chats” screen and then tap “New List”. Once this is done, you can select the contacts, create a list and write the message that you want to send.

How to find out how much you are using WhatsApp

You can check if you are addicted to WhatsApp, or at least see how many messages you have exchanged across your conversations or how much storage all the photos and videos received is taking. Just go to Settings, select Account and tap “Storage Usage”.