Ever since WhatsApp launched its beta channel, new features have been rushing in. The latest entrant? Basic text formatting. Yeah, but what it does? We will guide you through that today! 🙂 Though we still doubt does the web WhatsApp support it?
Reports indicate that starting from version 2.12.535 of the app (though it could be earlier since it is difficult to keep track of changes in the builds), you can use the formatting in the same manner that you do in Google+. What that means is text enclosed within asterisks (*bold*) is rendered as bold and text enclosed within underscores (_italic_) is rendered in italics. Of course, your recipient needs to be on the same version to see these changes.
Other formatting cues such as dashes for strikethrough (-strikethrough-) do not seem to available yet though they may show up in future updates.
The formatting also appears in the notifications, with the name of the sender now being displayed in bold which obviously makes it easier to distinguish between the sender and their message. Of course, if the message itself is formatted in bold or italic, that’s how it shows up in the notification as well.
Also worth mentioning is that the document sharing feature which showed up a little while ago has been refined. Attaching documents now lets you browse your Google Drive or OneDrive accounts as well as your local storage, via the built in file manager. Also, while initially limited to sending only PDFs, it is now possible to send documents and presentations though all of them are converted into PDFs. This should take care of compatibility issues and cheers to WhatsApp for thinking this through. Interestingly, only Docs and Slides can be sent and none of the traditional Microsoft Office file formats (.doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx) seem to be supported.
Of course, not all features might make it to subsequent versions as WhatsApp is known to add and then remove features only to add them later. Right now though, grabbing the latest from the Beta channel on Play Store should put you into the game.
Via- AndroidPolice