With over 3 billion users worldwide sending more than 100 billion messages every day, WhatsApp is a bustling hub of communication.
In this sea of texts, making your message stand out is key. One way to do this is by changing your font style in WhatsApp. Whether you want to emphasize an important point in bold, add a subtle emphasis in italics, or strike through text for humor, WhatsApp’s built-in text formatting features let you add personality and clarity to your chats.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll show you exactly how to change font style in WhatsApp – covering bold, italics, strikethrough, and monospace, on any device without any third-party apps.
Let’s dive in and make your chats pop with style!
In an age of information overload, using different font styles on WhatsApp can instantly draw attention to your message. Imagine you’re coordinating a team meeting in a group chat, and sending a reminder with bold text for the date and time ensures no one misses it. Or perhaps you want to add emphasis or a personal touch to a friendly message – italics can convey a light, conversational tone. Strikethrough text can be used for a playful oops, never mind effect or to show edits and revisions in real-time. Monospace font (the typewriter-like text) not only looks unique but also helps align text or share code snippets clearly.
In short, font styles help your messages stand out and communicate tone. With WhatsApp supporting these formatting options across Android, iPhone, and even Web/Desktop, everyone in your chat will see the styled text as intended. By mastering these tricks, you ensure your important points shine through and your chats remain engaging and easy to read.
WhatsApp offers four built-in text formatting styles for messages, available to all users without any extra apps. These are the core options for changing your font style within the app:
These formatting styles are built directly into WhatsApp and work on all platforms. No third-party apps or plugins are needed – WhatsApp has you covered with native features.
Making text bold in WhatsApp is a great way to highlight important words or phrases in your message.
To bold a word or sentence, simply place an asterisk (*) on both sides of the text you want to embolden.
For example, if you type *Hello* in the chat box, it will appear as Hello when sent. As shown above, the word “bold” in the sample message appears darker and stands out from the rest of the text.
This bold formatting works for any part of your message – whether it’s a single word or an entire sentence.
Tip: Make sure there is no extra space between the asterisk and the text. For instance, use *Important* (without spaces), not * Important *, or the formatting won’t apply.
Alternate method
Italics are useful for adding emphasis in a softer way or for titles and foreign phrases.
To italicize text in WhatsApp, place an underscore (_) on both sides of the word or phrase.
For example, typing _Good morning_ will send as Good morning in the chat. The text will appear slanted to the right, just like in typical italic formatting.
Just as with bold, don’t leave spaces immediately after the underscore or before it. Write it snug against the first and last letter of the section you want italicized (e.g., _hello_ not _ hello _).
Mobile shortcut: On Android or iOS, after selecting the text by holding/dragging, choose Italic from the formatting toolbar (often labelled BIU on iPhone or via the three-dot menu on Android). This will wrap the text with underscores automatically.
Strikethrough text places a horizontal line through your message, which can convey crossed-out words, corrections, or a humorous tone.
To format text with a strikethrough, enclose the text in tilde symbols (~) on both sides.
For example, if you type ~Sold Out~, it will appear as Sold Out in the chat, with a line through “Sold Out”. This is useful for indicating something is cancelled or deprecated while still showing the original text.
As always, ensure there’s no space between the ~ and the text for the effect to work. Once you add the tildes, WhatsApp will preview the strikethrough formatting in your compose box.
Mobile shortcut: Using the app’s menu, select your text and look for Strikethrough (you might need to tap a More or ⋮ options button to find it, as it’s usually hidden behind additional options). Tapping that will automatically apply the ~~ formatting. All participants in the chat will see the strikethrough text, since this is an official feature, not just a gimmick on your phone.
Monospace font gives your text a typewriter-style, evenly spaced look – every character occupies the same width. WhatsApp’s monospace is great for sharing code snippets, tech discussions, or just giving a message a distinct style.
To use a monospace font, surround your text with three backtick “```” characters on each side. For example, typing Hello (three backticks, your text, then three backticks) will display as Hello in a monospace font when sent. Notice that the Hello in monospace appears in a separate font that’s different from WhatsApp’s default chat font.
On most keyboards, the backtick (`) is the grave accent symbol often found near the top-left, and you’ll need to type it three times in a row before and after your text. Make sure not to include spaces between these backticks and your text for it to work.
Mobile shortcut: After highlighting text on Android or iPhone, tap Monospace in the formatting menu (again under BIU or the More options if you’re on Android). This will insert the triple backticks automatically around the text.
Monospace can’t be mixed with other styles (you can’t have bold + monospace together), so it will always appear on its own. It’s perfect for formatting technical information or even creating a neat, aligned list, since each character (including spaces) takes equal space in this font.
One powerful trick is that you can apply more than one style to the same text (except with monospace). WhatsApp allows combining bold, italic, and strikethrough together for even richer formatting. The rule is to simply stack the respective symbols at the start and end of the text, in the correct order. For example:
Keep in mind that monospace cannot be combined with bold/italic/strikethrough – it’s a standalone style.
Typing symbols like * _ ~ is quick once you get used to it, but WhatsApp also provides a more visual way to change font styles, especially handy on mobile. Here’s how to use the built-in formatting menu on Android and iPhone:
On desktop WhatsApp, as mentioned earlier, you can use keyboard shortcuts instead: Ctrl+B for bold, Ctrl+I for italics, etc., and on Mac, use the Command (⌘) key similarly. If you forget the shortcuts, don’t worry – you can still manually type the symbols on desktop, or refer to WhatsApp’s help menu.
Note: These formatting features work consistently across all platforms. Whether someone views your message on an Android phone, an iPhone, or WhatsApp Web on a PC.
WhatsApp isn’t limited to just font style changes; it has recently expanded its text formatting capabilities to make messages even more structured and clear. In early 2024, WhatsApp introduced four new formatting options to the platform:
These new text formatting options joined the existing bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospace formats already available. In other words, WhatsApp’s text styling has grown more robust, allowing for message formatting similar to what you might do in an email or document. The best part is that these features are available on Android, iOS, Web, and Desktop – no matter how you use WhatsApp, you can take advantage of them as long as your app is updated to the latest version.
Pro Tip: Always keep your WhatsApp app updated to the latest version to enjoy these new features and formatting options. Updates often bring new capabilities (like the ones above) and ensure that you and your recipients can see the formatted text as intended.
Changing the font style in WhatsApp is an easy yet powerful way to make your conversations more engaging, clear, and personal. We’ve covered how to use bold text for urgent highlights, italics for emphasis, strikethrough for tongue-in-cheek moments, and monospace for a distinctive look – all built right into WhatsApp with no extra apps needed. We also explored combining styles and even the newest list and quote features that turn WhatsApp into a mini word-processor for your chats.
Now it’s time to put these tips into practice. The next time you send a WhatsApp message, try spicing it up with a bit of formatting: make a key detail bold, or italicize a phrase for effect. Your friends, family, or colleagues will notice the difference, and your messages could become more memorable.
Ready to level up your messaging? Go ahead and try out these WhatsApp font styles right now in your next chat.
Happy chatting!
To adjust the font size of messages (for your own screen), WhatsApp provides a setting. Go to Settings > Chats > Font Size. There, you can choose Small, Medium, or Large as per your preference. This will change how big text appears on your device. Note that this does not affect how your message appears on your recipient’s phone – it only changes your viewing size. (There’s currently no way to change the actual font style or size that others see, apart from the formatting tricks we discussed.)
Unfortunately, WhatsApp does not support underlining text in chats as a built-in feature. The app’s formatting options are limited to bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospace – there is no underline option available. Some third-party apps or websites let you generate underlined letters or text using special Unicode characters, which you could copy and paste into WhatsApp. However, these aren’t true underlines (they’re usually combining characters that simulate an underline) and can be clunky. They also require using external tools, which we generally don’t recommend for privacy and security. So, in short, you cannot directly underline text in WhatsApp natively.
