Blessed (or cursed) WhatsApp groups . There are all kinds of them, from groups of friends, family, for a birthday, to organize a barbecue, with those from work, with those from the club, with those from the football team, with the three friends you went out with the other day… WhatsApp groups have become an entity in themselves over the years.
Below, we leave you our guide with the best tricks for both administrators and group members, and some ideas to better organize them. And yes, of course we have added how to mute WhatsApp groups , something as basic as it is necessary. Here we go.
Tips for administrators
How to create a group or broadcast
Let’s start with the most basic and important trick. How can you create a group? Basically, you have to go to the settings in the top right corner and click on ‘New Group’ or ‘New Broadcast’ . Then, you choose the participants you want to invite, write the name (maximum 25 characters) and that’s it. The process to create a broadcast list is equivalent, but you will have to select at least two people.
How to add participants
We continue with another basic option. Once the group has been created, we can add new participants by simply clicking on the name of the group and choosing the ‘Add participants’ option that we will see below. When we click on it, it will take us to the contact list and we will only have to select those we want to include in our group.
Create link to invite
Another more elaborate option for inviting someone to a group is to do so using a link. To create one, we must go to the option below the one for adding participants. By clicking on ‘Group invitation link’ , we will generate a URL so that anyone who clicks on it can add themselves to the group. Precisely for this reason, we should only share it with those we are interested in.
How to add new administrators
If we already have a group and we want to add new administrators, what we have to do is click on the name of the group and go to the list of participants. There, we click on one of the members and choose ‘Designate as group admin’ . WhatsApp allows us to make all the members of the group administrators, but they will be full administrators, keep this in mind before choosing a contact.
Add a description
WhatsApp has long allowed you to add a description to groups , which is very useful for explaining to everyone what topics will be discussed or simply to give it a special touch. This option can be found just below the group’s profile image.
Who can send information
If we go into the Group Settings, we can choose several options. One of them is ‘Edit group info’, to decide who can modify the subject, icon, description and even the possibility of sending temporary messages. Another option is to choose whether only administrators can send messages or whether all members can do so.
How to delete a WhatsApp group
It may seem simple, but the truth is that the option to delete the group does not appear directly . To do so, you must delete each participant and, when you are the last one, leave the group. When you do so, a message will appear to delete the group.
Create a group for yourself
Another fairly classic and useful trick is to create a group where you are the only one, for example, to leave notes, send information and have a private space for yourself. To create it, you must make a group, invite someone and then kick them out .
Mute a specific user
Another trick for admins is to mute a specific user. How do you do this? Basically, by removing someone as an admin . The idea is to make all users admins and have them able to speak; the moment you want to mute someone, you simply remove them as an admin.
Tips for participants
Reply directly or send a direct message
In large groups it is sometimes difficult to know who a message is addressed to. There are two very simple tricks that we should know about. The first is to reply to a specific message . To do this, we must hold down the message and in the top bar, click on the first icon, the crooked arrow pointing to the left. Right next to the star. Or, even simpler: slide your finger over the message in question.
The second trick is to send a message to someone . To do this, you must add an ‘@’ and a list of the names of the participants will appear. When you write to them, they will receive a notification and a notice directly, as well as knowing that the message is for them.
Knowing who has read the message
The double blue check means that the other person has read the message. But what happens in groups? The mechanism is similar, but it will not turn blue until all members have read it. To find out who has already done so, just hold down the message, tap on the ‘i’ for information and the list of people who have already read it will appear.
Prevent media from being saved
If we go to the group settings and click on ‘Media Visibility’, we can choose whether we want the photos and videos sent to us to be saved in the gallery. If it is the classic WhatsApp group with lots of people sending viral videos and memes , we recommend that you click on ‘No’.
See who is in the group
If you want to know how many people are in a group, you can go to settings and see the full list of participants. Fortunately, there is also a search engine , so in large groups it is easier to find the person. If we click on it, we can start a private chat with the confirmation code that will tell us that it is encrypted.
Mute a group and remove notifications
Within the group settings we have one of the most important options, the one to silence notifications. If we click on it, we can choose between 8 hours, 1 week or Always . We also recommend unchecking the ‘Show notifications’ option so that the silence is complete. When you are in a new group and you see a lot of activity, our recommendation is to silence it for at least a week.
Customize notifications
Below the mute option, we have the custom notifications, a less used but very useful section. Here we can, for example, configure the color of the LED, establish how long we want the vibration to last or designate a special tone for a group , very practical if we want to differentiate the sounds of this specific group from the rest.
View files that have been uploaded
WhatsApp is also a very interesting tool for sharing files , and groups are ideal for this. If you want to see an old photo, a PDF that someone sent at some point, or a link to a strange website, thanks to the file history, you can quickly access them from the group settings by tapping on the files tab.
Group video call
We left for last a tool that arrived a while ago, but gained special relevance during the pandemic. We are talking about group video calls , which were initially for four participants, but were later expanded to eight people . To make a video call to all the participants in the group, just enter it and tap the camera icon that you will find in the upper right corner. Then, click on ‘Call the group’ and that’s it.