Here’s How WhatsApp’s New Text Formatting Shortcuts Work on Web and Mobile

WhatsApp is focused on bringing new privacy features to its users, but this week the messaging app has added something more important, namely new text formatting options. WhatsApp has announced four new text formatting shortcuts that add to the existing list of options that let you text people in bold, italic style, add strikethroughs or even white space. But with the new hotkeys, WhatsApp users can add new elements like bulleted list, block quote, embed code and more.

WhatsApp is essentially a messaging app, but the company understands that people use the app for more than just chatting, which explains the need to bring in the Myself account to share notes and make reminders for yourself. These new text formatting options have been tested for a while now, and WhatsApp users can try them out on desktop, Android, iOS, and even the web version of the messaging platform.

WhatsApp new text formatting shortcuts

The new four shortcuts for text formatting in WhatsApp are as follows:

Bulleted List – You can now make bullet points/dots in a WhatsApp message. The shortcut for this is to use the ‘-‘ symbol, press the spacebar, then type your message.

Numbered List – As the name suggests, WhatsApp now lets you quickly make numbered bullet points in chats. For this to work, you must type numbers followed by a period and press the space bar.

Block Quotes – That’s right, WhatsApp now offers block quotes to highlight it before you send it in the messaging app. The shortcut for this is “>”, press the spacebar and type the text you want to send.

Internal Code – And the last new shortcut works by using the “ symbol and putting a message in them.

Back in India, WhatsApp has launched a new helpline to tackle the threat of serious fake and fake news as the country looks ahead to major elections in the coming months.