WhatsApp adds new text formatting styles to make your chats look better

WhatsApp is now rolling out new ways to make your chat texts look different. Adding to the existing formatting options for chats, the Meta-owned chat app has announced bulleted and numbered lists, block quotes, and inline codes to allow you to highlight and organise your messages better. Not only does it solve the problem when you have to stylise long texts, but it also gives a better look to your messages.

These formatting options have been in development for some time, but, like several other features, WhatsApp has made them widely available. They are now available across Android, iOS, Web, and Mac platforms for both chats and Channels.

For a long time, WhatsApp has offered the classic formatting styles of bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospace. You can stylise your text by using certain punctuation marks. For instance, inserting your text between two asterisks boldens it. The new formatting options use new punctuation marks to take effect, similarly.

You can trigger the new formatting styles using these symbols in your text.

What are WhatsApp’s new text-formatting options?

Bulleted lists: To write your text in bullets, just like how you would when using an app like Microsoft Word, insert your text after a “-” symbol. This will help you break information into things such as shopping lists.

Numbered lists: Just like bullets, you can use numbers to organise your messages for better clarity and a sequential syntax. To use numbered lists, write the digit like “1” or “2,” followed by a full stop and space. WhatsApp will automatically begin numbered lists for your messages.

Block quotes: When you want to highlight a certain part of a sentence, you can use block quotes. To use this insert your text after the “>” symbol and a space after that. For example, > block quotes.

Inline code: This formatting option will help coders highlight a chunk of a code when sending it to someone, but regular users can leverage this style to highlight specific information in your message. You can write your message and highlight the required part by putting it into two “`” symbols, just `like this`.