Switch to what's app?

RumRat

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

I can't see on the home screen on my phone that there are any whats app messages until I actually click on the green folder and open whats app. Is there a way of being able to see if I have a whats app message waiting on my home screen?

Hope I am making clear what I mean.

Understood, but you don't say what phone it is.
If it's an android delete the app shortcut from the home screen. Go back into the app drawer and drag the Whatsapp icon back onto the home screen.....See if that works.
If you have a third party launcher installed there will be a setting that turns badge counts on and off probably.
Do you get badge counts for email and texts?

bjbyorkshire

Thanks for the suggestions, My Oh is out with the phone at the mo so as soon as he returns I will try the above suggestions.

Yes it is an android phone, Motorola, No I don't think that we can see if there are any e mails waiting or text either so I think it may be that the notifications are turned off in the phone settings.

Will try and report back later.

RumRat

If it's a Motorola then you may be out of luck. I don't think that it's enabled on Moto phones with the stock launcher.
If you really want them download a third part launcher from the play store. Something like Nova Launcher or Go Launcher...

austonic

WhatsApp is just one of dozens of popular instant messaging apps, including:
Viber
Facebook messenger,
Microsoft MSN, & Skype
Apple iMessage,
Google hangouts & Allo
AOL IM (AIM) & ICQ
Telegram
Yahoo Messenger
Signal
Snapchat
WeChat
etc

not forgetting Yammer, Slack and Twitter direct message options

All of these are internet/data services dependent. I've used ICQ since the late 90s!

boliston

i find sms works fine for text communication and i get unlimited texts with my 11 pound a month three sim only package - i use hangouts for sending photos - im not sure how whatsapp beats hangouts

bjbyorkshire

I have just been into settings and I think that I have turned the notifications of for both whats app and e mail... we shall see if and when I receive a new message.

Thanks for your help.

SouthUKMan

Another quick thought...WhatsApp is available for both Android and iPhone devices, so it doesn't matter what smartphone you / your son / friend / colleague, etc has - WhatsApp will work for everyone (putting aside the comparatively tiny percentage of Blackberry users). It's a brilliant communication app. As already pointed out, the only real downside is that you either need a decent data plan on your phone contract or simply stick to using it on wifi.

DavidP24

littlerock wrote: »

My son is agitating for me to give up using SMS messaging on my phone, and replace it with What's App. What are the pros and cons?

I use whatsapp and imessage and SMS, Whatsapp is better than imessage at sending images, easier to prune down, you can set it to save any images you are sent. I recommend you lock down your contact list, provide access only when you start chatting with someone regularly.

I tend to use imessage as a replacement for SMS because I have Iphone but for many people I use whatapp if I talk regularly. Imessage is good if I am not in wifi and if I lock down data, I can still tell it to send via SMS if they are not in wifi or data area or I am not.

Whatsapp is good at bridging gap between android and iphone, no image charges for MMS and is quicker than SMS when on wifi.

Calling on Whatapps is usually very good quality and they recently added video chat (like facetime) I do not use that so can't comment.

You can config whatsapp to only display basic notification rather than displaying message on lock screen

Whatsapp does eat battery depending on your settings, as a new user you can't opt out from Facebook spying on you, so setup a new Gmail address for your phone and remove your phone number from facebook if you were dumb enough to ever provide it.

You can use that Gmail to collect email from your usual account if you really want email on your phone (I don't as I have enough distractions and like to dip into email when I WANT).

I do not think it is a A or B choice, just add whatsapp and use it for main text and calls.

I no longer use a landline because of Whatapp

J_B

Katykat wrote: »

I have family in Australia & iMessage works fine for this too.

So, not really understanding iMessage (does anyone?) presumably when it says 'sent as a text message' then you get charged for an international text??
Is that so??

DUTR

KxMx wrote: »

Remove mobile number from Facebook.

Opt out of sharing on What's App

Job done

My number has never been on facebook, I see 'people you may know' on facebook, so there is still some link between the two contacts. :mad: