WhatsApp announced today that it will be introducing a variety of new formatting options on its platform. These features include bulleted lists, numbered lists, block quotes, and inline code. The company stated that these formatting tools are now available to users on all platforms, including iOS, Android, web, and Mac. They can be used not only for personal one-on-one and group conversations but also within the broadcast feature known as Channels.
To use these formatting features, here is what you need to know:
- Bulleted lists: To begin a bulleted list, simply type the ‘-‘ symbol followed by a space.
- Numbered lists: A numbered list can be created by typing a number followed by a period and a space. For example: “1. ”
- Block quotes: If you want to highlight specific text, you can do so by typing a ‘>’ symbol followed by a space.
- Inline code: For highlighting a code snippet, enclose the code with two ‘`’ symbols.
While WhatsApp already has basic text formatting options such as Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, and Monospace, these new features allow for more creative content presentation. As the chat app expands its communication capabilities with communities, business messaging, and Channels, the need for additional formatting tools becomes more apparent. It is no longer enough to simply send plain text.
Additionally, in December, Meta introduced AI-powered characters across all of its apps in the U.S. It is possible that these new formatting options will also assist the AI-powered bots in providing organized responses to users.
