How-To

Easily Change the Font Style in WhatsApp

By Adam Davidson

Published May 20, 2024

Switching up the font style in WhatsApp is simple to do, once you know how. Here’s how to change font style in WhatsApp.

“I am not coming to your party.” This sounds fairly innocuous, right? But maybe what you really mean is “I am NOT coming to your party.” There’s a big difference between the two. The first could be interpreted in any number of ways. The second is not open to interpretation at all.

Being able to use different font styles in your WhatsApp messages makes it much easier to convey exactly what you mean. Using bold, italic, or strikethrough text opens up a whole world of options, and even more WhatsApp font styles are available once you know how. Here’s how to change the font style in WhatsApp.

How to Change to a Bold Font Style in WhatsApp

If you want to use bold text in your WhatsApp message, you’ll need to add an asterisk before and after your text. You must ensure that you don’t leave a space between the asterisks and your text, or you won’t get the desired results You can type as much as you want between the asterisks, including spaces, and all of the text will appear in bold.

1. Type an asterisk (*).
   
2. Type the text you want to appear in bold, without adding a space.
   
3. When you’ve typed all the text you want to appear in bold, type another asterisk (*) without leaving a space and you should see the text change to bold.
   
4. Add any further text you want.
5. Tap Send and the message will be sent with bold text without the symbols at the start and finish.
   

How to Italicize Text in WhatsApp

If you want to italicize any text in a WhatsApp message, you’ll need to use an underscore before and after the text. You must ensure you don’t leave a space after the initial underscore or before the final one, or the font style won’t work.

1. Type an underscore (_).
   
2. Without leaving a preceding space, write out the text you want to appear in italics.
   
3. When you’ve typed all the text you want to appear in italics, type another underscore (_) without leaving a space in between and you should see the text change to italics.
   
4. Add any additional text you want.
5. Tap Send and the message will be sent with italic text without the symbols.
   

Change Your Font Style to Strikethrough Text in WhatsApp

You can also change your font style to strikethrough text in WhatsApp. This can be useful for making hilarious jokes by pretending that you meant to say one thing, then changed your underwear mind. To create strikethrough text, you need to place a tilde (~) before and after the text you want to strikethrough.

1. Type a tilde(~).
   
2. Enter the text you want to appear in bold, without a preceding space.
   
3. When you’ve entered all the text you want, type another tilde(~) ensuring that you don’t leave a space beforehand. You should see the text change to strikethrough.
   
4. Add more standard text if you want.
5. Tap Send and the message will be sent with strikethrough text with the symbols omitted.
   

How to Combine Font Styles in WhatsApp

The above are the three main font styles in WhatsApp, but what if you want to combine them? What if you want text that is bold and italic, for example? It’s possible to apply multiple font styles to the same text. All you need to do is ensure that you reverse the order of the formatting symbols at the end of the message. For example, if you start with *~ you should end the message with ~*.

1. Type the symbols that you want to use to apply multiple font styles to your text. The initial order isn’t important. You can use two or more symbols if you wish.
   
2. Type out your text, ensuring you don’t leave a space after the symbols.
   
3. At the end of the text, type out the symbols in the reverse order of the symbols at the start of your text.
   
4. Tap Send and your message will be sent with multiple font styles applied with the symbols no longer visible.
   

How to Use Monospace Text in WhatsApp

There are some other font styles you can apply in WhatsApp. One of these is monospace, which replaces the standard font with a monospace font. To apply this format, you’ll need to type a backtick, which isn’t on the standard keyboard on most phones or even some computers. There’s a trick to access the backtick on the standard iOS keyboard on iPhone. If you have an Android phone, the method to type a backtick will depend on the operating system and keyboard you’re using.

1. On iPhone, tap and hold the single quote key.
   
2. Select the backtick (`) from the options that appear.
   
3. On Android, try long-pressing the symbols or number key to access other symbols including the backtick.
4. Type three backticks in succession without spaces.
   
5. Without leaving a space, type your text.
   
6. Type three more backticks directly after the text.
   
7. Tap Send and your text will be sent in monospace font style.
   

How to Add a Quote in WhatsApp

You can also send text in WhatsApp in a quote style. This allows you to differentiate your message from the text that you’re quoting. If you want to quote a message sent previously in your conversation, you can swipe right on that message to include it as a quote in the message you write. However, if you want to insert text as a quote from elsewhere, you can use the quote font style to do so. In this instance, unlike the examples above, you do need to leave a space before your text, or the font style won’t change.

1. Type a closed angle bracket (>).
   
2. Type a space and then enter the text you want to quote.
   
3. If you want to add more text, tap Return to start a new line.
4. Anything you type on the new line will be in the default font style.
5. Tap Send and your quote will be sent.
   

How to Create a Bulleted List in WhatsApp

It’s also possible to create bulleted lists in WhatsApp if you really want to. All you need to do is type an asterisk followed by a space, and the text you type afterward will be a bullet point. By default, each new line will become a new bullet point, although you can stop this formatting for subsequent text if you wish.

1. Type an asterisk (*).
   
2. Type a space.
3. Enter the text you want as your first bullet point.
   
4. Tap Return.
5. Type the text you want as your second bullet point.
   
6. Repeat for as many bullet points as you wish.
7. To stop the bullet point format, tap Return twice, and the text will return to the default format.
8. Tap Send and your bullet points will be sent.
   

How to Create a Numbered List in WhatsApp

As well as bulleted lists, you can also create numbered lists similarly. These will automatically generate the next number for each point in the list without you need to enter them manually.

1. Type 1. followed by a space.
   
2. Enter the text for your first numbered item.
   
3. Tap Return.
4. Enter the text for your second numbered item.
   
5. Repeat for as many numbered items as you wish.
6. To stop the formatting, tap Return twice.
7. Tap Send and your numbered list will be sent.
   

How to Use Inline Code in WhatsApp

You can use the inline code format if you want to send some code in a WhatsApp message. For this format, you’ll need to use the backtick (`) symbol again, which doesn’t appear on the default keyboard for most phones.

1. Type a backtick (`).
   
2. Enter the text for your code and type another backtick (`).
   
3. To add another line of code, press Return and repeat the steps above.
   
4. Tap Send to send your text in inline code format.
   

Changing Font Style in WhatsApp

Learning how to change font style in WhatsApp allows you to apply different formatting to your messages. This means you can add emphasis to messages, distinguish song, book, or movie titles, or simply make hilarious jokes by crossing out sections of text.

The shortcuts for these font styles are fairly simple and once you’ve used them a few times, they soon become second nature, allowing you to change the font style in your WhatsApp messages whenever you like.