WhatsApp Gains New Text Formatting Options in Latest Update

[MacRumors]

WhatsApp has added new text formatting options to the chat platform, enabling users to message each other everything from grocery lists to step-by-step instructions in mid-conversation.

Following Wednesday's update, WhatsApp users can now use bulleted and numbered lists, block quotes, and inline code to communicate more effectively.

The new formatting options join the existing bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospaced formats that have been available to WhatsApp users for a while now.

How to Use New WhatsApp Text Formatting Options

• Bulleted list: Start a new line with a - (dash) symbol, followed by a space.
• Numbered list: Start a new line with 1 or 2 digits, followed by a period and a space.
• Block quote: Start a new line with the > symbol, followed by a space.
• Inline code: Wrap any code or text you want to highlight using the ` (backtick) symbol.

All of WhatsApp's text formatting options (Image: WhatsApp)​

Last month, WhatsApp introduced a custom sticker creation tool for iPhone users running iOS 17 or later. In a future update, WhatsApp also plans to add passkey support, allowing iPhone users to sign in to the app with Face ID, Touch ID, or their device's passcode.

Article Link: WhatsApp Gains New Text Formatting Options in Latest Update

 

[3530025]

Yep! Markdown formatting should be standard feature.

 

[scheming]

Too bad the backtick isn't easy to get to in iOS keyboard. It's hidden by long press under the single quote 🤦‍♂️

 

[CB1234]

Wish iMessage would add more features - not gimmicky ones, but really useful ones like WhatsApp has. Lot of our clients prefer to use WhatsApp to communicate, instead of emails. WhatsApp is very very useful for business chats.

iMessage on other hand is not intuitive or business user friendly much...

 

[Motawa]

welcome to 1998

 

[Sanmi]

Just ficking give us an iPad app

 

[tweaknmod]

Wish iMessage would add more features - not gimmicky ones, but really useful ones like WhatsApp has. Lot of our clients prefer to use WhatsApp to communicate, instead of emails. WhatsApp is very very useful for business chats.

iMessage on other hand is not intuitive or business user friendly much...

Can you give examples? What does WhatsApp have that make it more useful for business?

 

[3530025]

welcome to 1998

Well it looks like (incomplete) markdown implementation. And markdown was released in 2004. Where's your 1998 comes from?

Also does not matter it's that old - many apps do not support it still unfortunately.

 

[NoGood@Usernames]

Wish iMessage would add more features - not gimmicky ones, but really useful ones like WhatsApp has...

I've been hoping for years that iMessage would add text formatting like this along with standard bold, italic, underline options. Up to this point, it would have been a differentiator amongst the other messaging apps, and a genuinely useful feature.

Not that I don't still want them to add it, but they missed an opportunity to go there first and set their software apart.

 

[tomtad]

More stuff you can't do with iMessage

 

[mashdots]

Now that I think about it I'm kinda surprised we don't already have basic formatting with iMessage or RCS (even if it's just bold or italics)

 

[The Phazer]

Sadly no spoiler tag, the thing it actually needs.

 

[toobravetosave]

apple too busy going thru their app review backlog for some extra free 30%s

 

[JippaLippa]

Great!
Now give us that sweet sweet P3 Encryption.

 

[timber]

Wish iMessage would add more features - not gimmicky ones, but really useful ones like WhatsApp has. Lot of our clients prefer to use WhatsApp to communicate, instead of emails. WhatsApp is very very useful for business chats.

iMessage on other hand is not intuitive or business user friendly much...

Sometimes in these threads it seems that a lot of people think that WhatsApp only gets used because some people aren't blessed with iMessage.
Well, as you pointed out WhatsApp is a very well put together app, simple and effective.

 

[Richuu]

Sadly no spoiler tag, the thing it actually needs.

Yeah! Spoiler tag would clearly be used more broadly than basic formatting

/s

 

[Egregius]

Always find it funny that stuff like this gets the news while it's already standard in lots of other apps like Telegram.

 

[icanhazmac]

Well, as you pointed out WhatsApp is a very well put together app, simple and effective.

Well, as you pointed out WhatsApp is a very well put together app, simple and effective bit of spyware for Zuck.

Fixed that for you. Hard pass.

 

[mazz0]

Wish iMessage would add more features - not gimmicky ones, but really useful ones like WhatsApp has. Lot of our clients prefer to use WhatsApp to communicate, instead of emails. WhatsApp is very very useful for business chats.

iMessage on other hand is not intuitive or business user friendly much...

Surely iMessage as a business tool is a non-starter anyway due to its single-platform nature? A business communications app for me has to be cross platform, if I can't message colleagues on Windows and Linux with it then it's no use.

 

[JamesMay82]

Wish iMessage would add more features - not gimmicky ones, but really useful ones like WhatsApp has. Lot of our clients prefer to use WhatsApp to communicate, instead of emails. WhatsApp is very very useful for business chats.

iMessage on other hand is not intuitive or business user friendly much...

ive also found more people preferring what's app to do business deals instead of email.. no idea why but my guess is the informal nature of it maybe?

 

[Frx1jet]

Deleted after realising that I was getting ads all over my Apple devices on subjects discussing with mates (without looking up at all with safari or else). So someone was hearing. Never been happier.

 

[reverie]

I’ve used these for a while. My first `backtick` happened on 02 Feb 2024, and before that, my first • bullet happened on 17 Sep 2023.

I’m pretty sure these features were launched over the last few months and highlighted now for marketing purposes.

 

[gatorvet96]

A free to use app from Meta. Hmmm? I wonder how it makes money? Oh wait. Data farming. Hard Pass

 

[spazzcat]

ive also found more people preferring what's app to do business deals instead of email.. no idea why but my guess is the informal nature of it maybe?

This is crazy; even iMessage has better encryption and security. Businesses should be doing anything of importance over encrypted email. I wonder what Meta does with all this information.

 

[urtext]

Next step: support for `pandoc`!

Who doesn't want beautiful \LaTeX rendered PDFs of those very very, very special chats?