Goldstuck on Gadgets: What lurks within WhatsApp

What is it?

WhatsApp began life as a no-frills messaging app, but that is ancient history. Today, it’s a sprawling platform packed with tools, tricks, and features that most users barely tap into. What lurks in WhatsApp is more than messaging: it’s a Swiss Army knife for communication, privacy, organisation, and productivity.

The biggest features you didn’t know you needed

Let’s start with Voice Chat. ChatGPT describes it as “the WhatsApp version of dropping in on a chatty dinner party. No ringing. No pressure.” Group members get a push notification when it starts and can join or leave at their convenience. Swipe up and hold to join.

Need a virtual corkboard for reminders, to-do lists, or voice notes? That’s where Message Yourself comes in. It creates a solo chat for your own brain dumps: notes, links, drafts, shopping lists. Pin it to the top of your feed and you’ve got your own private command centre. Oh, and Pin Chats is the great way to make sure you can return easily to important conversations without searching.

Beneath the search bar lies a gem: Tabs and Lists. You’ll see filters for Favourites, Groups, and Unread. The real magic happens when you swipe right: there’s a hidden “+” that lets you build Custom Lists. Maybe you need a “Clients 2025” list, or a shortcut to your extended family group. It’s perfect for keeping chaos at bay if you’re managing 100 conversations at once.

Group Management has come a long way. Admins can now control who can post, change group info, or add members. Add in Polls and Voting, and you’ve got full democracy at your fingertips without scheduling a Zoom call. It’s a great feature for groups large and small.

WhatsApp lets you Star Messages too. That sequence of pics of the family cat That quote you simply have to use again? That password for regular Zoom calls you can never find? Star it and it’s instantly searchable under the starred tab.

Need to keep conversations tight? Swipe to Reply lets you reply directly to any message in a thread. Just swipe left on it. Combined with Message Reactions – emoji responses without typing – it keeps the tone light and the chat organised.

For those with secrets or nosy colleagues, Chat Lock offers biometric protection: fingerprint or face ID to access selected conversations. Disappearing Messages make chats vanish after a set time – great for avoiding sensitive info hanging around.

Quick Replies let you reply from your phone’s notification shade without opening the app.

For neat formattin, you can Format Text in style:

• Bold: *text*
• Italic: text
• Strikethrough: texttext

Custom Notifications let you give your partner a different alert tone than your boss. You can set custom ringtones, vibration patterns, and LED colours for each contact or group.

Silent Unknown Callers lets you mute calls from unfamiliar numbers: ideal for escaping spam calls. For known annoyances, Block Contacts is your best friend.

QR Code Scanner is a less-heralded but powerful feature. It lets you add contacts or connect with businesses instantly without having to type numbers into your address book. However, it doesn’t always work as advertised.

For those running a side hustle or a major operation, WhatsApp Business turns your phone into a customer service desk. You can share catalogues, run support threads, automate replies, and – so WhatsApp claims – even close sales — from inside the app.

WhatsApp Web syncs your messages to a browser or desktop app. Great for multitasking, or when pretending to work during a Teams meeting.

Status Updates let you share images, videos, and text stories for 24 hours. You can see who viewed them and, with third-party tools, download other people’s statuses too,

If you’re a digital pack rat, Archive Chats lets you clean up your main screen without deleting anything. 

Media Download Settings help you manage data and storage. Choose when to download images, videos, or documents – Wi-Fi only, or all the time – so your gallery doesn’t fill up overnight.

Increase Font Size for readability, especially useful for those navigating midlife vision upgrades.

Group Call Upgrade now allows for more participants in voice and video calls, geared to both large families and dispersed teams.

File Sharing is surprisingly robust, with anything from PDFs and Word docs to images and zip files supported.

For flair, Emojis and Stickers give you hundreds of expressive options, from 😏 to 🧠 to obscure Star Wars memes.

There’s a way to use Quick Replies and Shortcuts on Android and iOS to open specific chats from your home screen. That’s ideal for adding the most-used contacts to the front row of your digital life.

Not a feature but a hack: Some power users create solo groups by removing all other participants from an existing group: like Message Yourself but with a twist. Others use third-party apps to back up messages, recover deleted chats, or schedule messages (which WhatsApp still doesn’t offer natively for all users).

What does it cost?

Free. WhatsApp costs nothing to download or use, assuming you’re online. Hidden costs come in storage, battery drain, and constant attention demands. Set up smart media settings, customise notifications, and use Archive to tame the beast.

Why does it matter?

WhatsApp has evolved beyond the place where people gossip or share memes. It’s a business tool, a family organiser, a journaling app, a virtual assistant, and sometimes, a lifeline. People use it to coordinate crisis response, share schoolwork, track deliveries, build brands, and archive their lives. Yet, most users barely tap its potential.

It has become a mobile operating system for human interaction, especially in regions where internet services are expensive, and alternatives are limited. And it keeps adding features without forcing users to learn them. That is both its power and its problem, as WhatsApp hides in plain sight. Everyone has it, but few use it fully or realise they can get more out of it. But for those who dig deeper, it offers a hand-held revolution in how we work, talk, share, plan, joke, and live.

The three main negatives:

• Too many hidden features mean most users miss out.
• Requires third-party apps for some advanced tricks (like status downloads or message scheduling).
• Still lacks full integration across devices for true power users.

The three main positives:

• Powerful voice chat, messaging, and group tools that rival standalone apps.
• Extensive privacy and personalisation options for security and convenience.
• Surprisingly effective as a business, productivity, and personal tool.

* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, and author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI.