Living room: 6 whatsapp functions that have no signal

What is undoubtedly the most popular messaging app in the world and which is installed on millions of devices, both Android and iOS, DON'T è at most.

We don't say this because it has stopped working properly but because of all the controversy surrounding it over the recent update in its terms and conditions. For those who still do not know, the announcement of these new WhatsApp Terms of Service refers to data processing and how companies can use Facebook services to store and manage WhatsApp chats. Terms that must be accepted to continue using the app in 2021.

Despite everything, WhatsApp is still the number one messaging app

That's why many people fed up with WhatsApp have started using other alternatives. One of these is the always recommended Telegram, the other is Signal, an app that was placed in the top 1 of the most popular apps overnight.

However, despite all the advantages that Signal can have, there are still some features of WhatsApp that it doesn't have. Which ones are they? We reveal them to you.

Highlight a message

WhatsApp allows you to highlight any conversation in a chat. Pressing and holding the screen on any message will bring up a small screen with various options. One of them is to highlight (the one with the star) and there allows you to "save" messages and therefore be able to access them quickly and easily without having to dive into the whole conversation.

A very interesting function for always have important messages at hand and don't lose them.

Update the states

WhatsApp statuses are posts that only last 24 hours.

Another feature that WhatsApp has and not Signal are states. The kind of Instagram Stories where you can share videos, photos, texts and that disappear after 24 hours.

Curiously, all Facebook-owned apps have this feature and one of the benefits is that we can choose which users can see them and who cannot.

Custom backgrounds

Another of the "advantages" of WhatsApp is that of being able to customize the chat backgrounds of each of our contacts. In this way we can have one of our own for when we talk with our partner, another for the group of friends and another for the work group.

To do this, we only need to access the contact information and click the Background and Sound option.

Group video calls

Video calling on WhatsApp has been improved and allows more members.

With the current situation, one of the things we like the most about a messaging app is being able to make video calls with more than one person. The truth is that Signal has this feature in beta but WhatsApp has already officially included it for a long time.

However, let's be honest, we believe that there are better alternatives for making video calls than WhatsApp and that apps like Skype or ZOOM seem much more complete to us.

Share your location in real time

Perhaps one of the most interesting features of WhatsApp. Surely more than once they have asked you on WhatsApp where you are. Instead of replying directly, you will have sent your position in real time.

Well, unfortunately Signal doesn't have this feature. It allows the sharing of positions but not ours live. So, if you are one of those who use this feature a lot in WhatsApp, be careful to switch to Signal, which is not implemented at the moment.

Allow in-app payments

In late 2020, WhatsApp added the ability to send and receive payments. It is a function that, although not available in all countries of the world, the list is progressively expanding.

This way, if we owe money to a friend, we can pay for it via WhatsApp and it can also be useful in the professional field, provided you use WhatsApp Business.

WhatsApp is one of the few messaging apps that has this feature and at the moment we have no news that Signal is adopting this feature in the short term.