Mastering WhatsApp Message Formatting: A Quick Guide

WhatsApp Message Formatting: WhatsApp users know how to format italic, bold, strikethrough, and monospace texts. Now with four more text formats—bulleted list, numbered list, quote, and inline code—you can improve and enliven your messages in eight formats. Everything you need to format WhatsApp messages is here.

Formatting WhatsApp texts

Formatting WhatsApp text messages:

Method 1: Typing punctuation (Android, iOS, WhatsApp Web)

Open a WhatsApp chat and follow these instructions to insert text formats:

Italic: To make the text italic, underscore both sides of the text.

Bold: To make text bold, use an asterisk * on both sides.

Strikethrough: Use tildes ~ on both sides of the text.

To use monospace, place three backticks on both sides of the text.

To create a bulleted list, use an asterisk * or hyphen, followed by a space before the text.

Numbered List—Place a number, period, and space before the text.

Use a greater than bracket (angle bracket) and a space before the text to quote it.

To use inline code, add a backtick to both sides of the text.

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Method 2: Shortcuts (Android, iOS, and WhatsApp for PC)

WhatsApp lets you add text formatting using shortcuts after typing if you don’t want to remember all the punctuation. So how:

• Enter text here. Choose and highlight it. Select the options for bold, italic, or strikethrough.
• Access the monospace option by tapping the three-dot icon and selecting it.
• Type your text in WhatsApp for PC, then right-click and choose a format.
• Note that shortcuts don’t yet support new text formats. Only the first four options appear. This may change in future updates.

WhatsApp text formatting breakdown by platform

We created a table to show you which text formats WhatsApp supports and how to insert them since WhatsApp didn’t say.

Platform ↓ \Method →	Punctuation (8 text formats)	Shortcut (4 text formats)
Android	Yes	Yes
iOS	Yes	Yes
WhatsApp for Web	Yes	No
WhatsApp App for PC	No	Yes

FAQ:

Below are some frequently asked WhatsApp text formatting questions on different platforms.

What platform supports all eight WhatsApp text formatting options?

All eight text formatting options are available on Android, iOS, and WhatsApp for the Web. Only Android, iOS, and the WhatsApp app for PC offers four text formatting shortcuts: bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospace. WhatsApp for Web doesn’t support shortcuts for text formats. The same can be done with punctuation. WhatsApp for PC only supports the first four formats.

Can WhatsApp text formats be disabled?

WhatsApp text formats cannot be disabled.

Does WhatsApp group chat text formatting work?

WhatsApp supports group and individual text formatting.

We hope you were able to format WhatsApp text and understand how to do so on other platforms. Till next time!

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