WhatsApp, under the ownership of Meta, is introducing new text formatting features to enrich the texting experience for users. The announcement of these changes was made by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on his WhatsApp channel, unveiling four additional text formatting options that complement the existing choices for Android, iOS, Web, and Mac desktop users.
Let’s delve into these features:
1. Monospace:
- Definition: A font where each letter and character occupies an equal amount of horizontal space.
- Usage: Activate this feature by enclosing the message with triple backticks (“`) at the beginning and end.
2. Bulleted List:
- Description: Creates visually clean and easily formatted text.
- Usage: Start a new line with a hyphen symbol ( – ) and press the space key once to automatically convert it into a bullet point. Add more bullet points by moving to the next line, and stop by tapping the backspace.
3. Numbered List:
- Process: Initiate a numbered list by starting a line with the number one (1), followed by a period ( . ) and a space.
- Note: The list won’t activate if any number other than one is used, or if the sequence is disrupted by introducing a non-numbered sentence.
4. Inline Quote:
- Feature: Displays a message within a greyed-out bubble for emphasis.
- Activation: Insert the backtick symbol ( ` ) before and after a sentence without any spaces in between to trigger the inline quote formatting.
These text formatting options have been globally rolled out and are expected to be available to all users in the coming days.
Besides these features, WhatsApp is reportedly developing a feature to protect users’ profile pictures from unauthorized screenshots. When enabled, attempting to take a screenshot will display a black screen with a message stating, “Can’t take a screenshot due to app restrictions.” This enhancement aims to add an extra layer of privacy protection for users on the platform.