NEW DELHI: WhatsApphas released two new features for Android users of its new 2.12.535 update, which was released earlier this month. Those using the new update can format text – i.e. make it bold or italicize it – as well as share documents saved in theirGoogle Drives.
In order to bold or italicize any text, put asterisk marks (*) and underscores (_) before and after it, respectively. For example:
However, the text appears bold or italicized to recipients only if they also have theWhatsApp version 2.12.535 installed on their phones. Otherwise the text in the example above appears like *hi* _How’s it going_.
Since this version of WhatsApp has not been made available on Google Play Storeyet, most users would not be able to use the text formatting feature yet.
The other key feature WhatsApp has introduced for Android users is the option to share files shared in their Google Drives. However, the files are converted to PDF and stored locally on the device instead of being shared as a cloud-based document.
Interestingly, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has also released a new version of the app on its website, named 2.12.539, which removes the text formatting but not the Google Drive document sharing option.