WhatsApp now offers 7 ways to style your text: WhatsApp is testing some new ways to format your text, specifically code blocks, quote blocks, and lists. The convenient formatting gear is finally becoming available to Android users in the beta section after iOS first got access, allowing Android users to upgrade their WhatsApp game as well.
With these three new features, WhatsApp now offers a total of 7 ways to layout text content. Although some of those formatting options are quite obvious and can be accessed by simply selecting the text you want to style, others are not. Below, we’re listing all the methods you can use with text on the app.
Code Block: Perfect for setting up code snippets
The code block feature allows you to show code and various monospaced fonts in a clean, organized block instead of countless cluttered lines in chat. To use it, actually wrap your text in backticks (`). You’ll realize it’s taking effort when the text shifts to a monospaced font.
Code blocks are available when you need to smartly share code snippets with builders, format terminal output and other monospaced text – or emphasize words with a different font, of course.
Quote Block: Reply to messages ‘without delay’
WhatsApp now offers 7 ways to style your text. Quotation blocks are a convenient way to quickly respond to a selected part of a message, building on the WhatsApp model of quickly replying to a Tweet. To implement this, simply place > before the text you want to quote.
Quote blocks help when you want to quickly reply to part of a long message, keep chat threads clean to follow visually, and touch on exact text when referencing.
Lists: organize data well
Brand new list formatting options help you present records in smoothly numbered or bulleted lists instead of long blocks of text.
To create a bulleted list, start each line with * or – like:
- first item
- second item
- etc.
For a numbered list, start the mark from a considerable number:
- First item
- second thing
- etc.
Lists help keep your long messages organized while you want to give instructions, outline undertaking items, list pros and cons, or give gift options/options.
Bold: draw attention to key phrases
Formidable has been a WhatsApp staple for emphasizing key words and phrases by adding asterisks *like this* to attract the reader’s interest. Use Formidable to highlight important facts, clearly highlighting and emphasizing key words.
Italics: for gentle emphasis
WhatsApp now offers 7 ways to style your text. Additionally, italics have long allowed readers to subtly emphasize text with the help of such words as with underscores. Italics helps make text appear slightly less bold, accurately convey sarcasm/sarcasm, and put emphasis on important points.
Strikethrough: Perfect for retracting statements
Strikethrough is good for politely correcting or retracting a statement by adding a tilde ~like this~ to make a point. Use strikethrough when you want to correct a previous claim, explicitly retract something, or omit options/options.
Monospace: highlighting code
You can also format the text in a monospaced font with 3 backticks “`like this”. This keeps the font consistent, perfect for code snippets, formatted poems, and text/ASCII artwork.
Keep in mind that not all of the above text formatting options were made widely available at the time of writing. However, considering that they have seen beta branches of WhatsApp on both iOS and Android, the full launch should not take long.