WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging applications in the worldwith more than 2,000 million monthly active users. In Spain it is the preferred communication tool for hundreds of thousands of people.for both personal and professional use.
Its ease of use and constant evolution have made it an essential channel to stay connectedshare files and organize tasks. In recent years, the app has added key features such as reactions to messagesstatuses similar to stories, the ability to send surveys and the option to edit sent messages, among many other changes.
But it is also a platform that hide some tricks and secretssuch as the functionality of the flag icon that can be seen in some messages.
This small but powerful symbol is designed to help you organize your conversations and quickly access relevant information. If you haven’t used it yet, here we explain everything you need to know about this function and how it can make your life easier.
What is the flag icon in WhatsApp?
The flag icon in WhatsApp is related to temporary messages function of the platform.
When you turn on temporary messages in a chat, messages are automatically deleted after a set period (24 hours, 7 days or 90 days). However, If you want to keep a specific message from being deleted, you can mark it with the flag icon. This indicates that the message will remain in the chat even after other temporary messages have disappeared.
Certainly, It is one of the most contradictory WhatsApp options– Its purpose is to preserve a specific message, preventing it from being automatically deleted, which goes against the main idea of ​​temporary messages, whose objective is precisely to disappear after an established time to maintain ephemeral and private conversations.
How to activate the WhatsApp flag?
You will simply have to follow a couple of steps and you can now use the WhatsApp flag icon:
- Activate temporary messages in the chat where you want to use the WhatsApp flag.
- Press and hold the message you want to keep to bookmark it.
To start, make sure WhatsApp has no pending updates. To do this, go to your profile and select ‘Manage apps and device’. Then check the option ‘pending updates’. Open the application and enter any chat with your best friend or partner.
Press and hold a message or file until shaded. You will see that the flag icon does not appear at the top, since you must first activate temporary messages. To do this, tap the contact or group name, scroll down, select ‘Temporary messages’ and choose one of the available options. Please note that this feature is only supported for messages you send or receive after enabling it.
Once activated, Click again on the text, image or video so that the flag appears. When that happens, press it and that way, when the time determined for automatic deletion expires, the message will not be deleted.
Importantly, if you send a message and someone else in the chat decides to keep it, you will receive a notification about it. Besides, you have the option to overturn the decision if you prefer the message to be deleted according to the set timer.
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