WhatsApp released this Wednesday (21) four new text formats. Now, users can create lists (numbered or unnumbered), citation blocks, and codes — the latter feature is geared toward programmers. With these new features, Meta’s app is becoming more and more interesting for professional use.
Before these tools, WhatsApp already had bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospaced formatting. These ways of editing the texts allow users to communicate more effectively, as well as help professionals, especially merchants, with personalized messages. Formatting highlights relevant parts of the text and makes it easier for the receiver of the message to read.
Check out the instructions below for using the new formatting types in WhatsApp.
To use unnumbered list formatting, the user needs to type – followed by a space. This option can be used to pass steps in a process, tasks to be fulfilled, or, for example, recipe ingredients.
To create a numbered list, you need to type the number 1 or 2 followed by a period and a space. Example: 1. Text one; 2. Text two. It is important to note that the list is visible after it is submitted and if there is a title, as shown in the image below.
To use quote block formatting, the user needs to open a new paragraph and type the > symbol followed by a space. To close the citation block, it is necessary to put a period at the end of the text. If the user wants to write more, they need to open a new paragraph.
For inline codes, the user needs to type the grave accent (popularly called the “backtick accent”) before and after the content that will be sent — similar to how bold, italic, and strikethrough formatting works.
These features were already released for some accounts. Now, what WhatsApp has done is release the update to the entire user base and versions of the app — Android, iPhone/iOS, Windows, and Mac.
WhatsApp wants to take over Slack and Discord space
These new WhatsApp features show Meta’s goal of expanding the app’s performance. Making an A+B of the app’s updates, it’s clear that Mark Zuckerberg wants WhatsApp to compete with Slack and Discord in the field of professional communication tools.
Some new features that reinforce this idea are the scheduling of group calls, a voice chat channel like Discord, pinning messages for up to 30 days (it is useful for general errands in companies) and sharing files with those who are nearby.
