Sneaky WhatsApp hack hides incoming messages… perfect if you hand phone to a pal

A HACK to stop people being able to read your WhatsApp messages could save your secrets being revealed.

Usually when you receive a message on WhatsApp a notification will appear on your lock screen.

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It also pops up as a banner when your phone is unlocked, which means if someone is borrowing it they could read messages they aren’t supposed to.

A simple way to prevent this happening is to activate a feature that hides the sender’s message and only reveals their name.

To do this, go to the Settings app and select Notifications.

Then click Toggle off Show Preview or Toggle off Show Notifications.

Android devices have a similar process, again go to Settings, Notifications, and then Toggle off Use high priority notifications.

Other features that can be used on WhatsApp itself are the Mute and Archive features.

If you swipe left on a message you will be given a More option and an Archive button.

Either click More, then Mute – you will be able to chose from eight hours, one week or always.

This will prevent your phone displaying any messages from the sender unless you are actively on WhatsApp.

The Archive feature will operate in the same way but it goes a step further by hiding the message even when you open the application.

You will know you have a text by looking in the top right hand corner where a number will show you how many unread messages you have in your Archive folder.

Other WhatsApp hacks include a sneaky trick to help you save data when using the app.

Conversing with your loved ones via WhatsApp can drastically drain this amount, as a data connection is needed to send and receive messages or calls.

So when you’re away from Wi-Fi, its best not to be sending large files and hoardes of images on the messaging app.

Users can alter their settings so they only download media when connected to the internet by Wi-Fi.

All you have to do is head to the ‘Settings’ section on WhatsApp before opening up the ‘Storage and Data’ tab.

Simply switch each option – such as photos, audio and video – to Wi-Fi only, which stop you from wasting data.