WhatsApp has updated its app with a new feature that lets people message themselves. Here’s how to use it.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps on the planet. It’s also one of the most secure. WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted so no one, not even WhatsApp, can read them. WhatsApp competes with the likes of Apple Messages (also an excellent messenger now that Advanced Data Protection has been rolled out) and Facebook’s own Messages (not recommended due to lack of end-to-end encryption).
WhatsApp has been on a tear lately, adding new features and enhancements to its app. One of the newest ones is called “Message Yourself.” Here’s what to know about it and how to use it…
What Is WhatsApp “Message Yourself”?
WhatsApp’s Message Yourself is a new feature in the app that allows you – as the name suggests – to send messages to yourself. If you use this feature, any message you send to yourself will…well…simply go to yourself – it will stay in the chat thread that you started with yourself and not be sent to anyone else.
Many may wonder why they would ever need to send a message to themselves, but the feature can actually be quite handy.
One scenario in which the feature may be useful is if you want to quickly remind yourself to do something, such as go shopping for groceries. Instead of opening up a separate notes app, you can just send yourself a WhatsApp message with the list of items you want to buy.
Another scenario is you can send yourself links to articles you want to remember to read later. Still another scenario is you can save audio or video recordings to the Message Yourself thread, so you can easily access them all in one place.
In this way, it’s best to think of the Message Yourself WhatsApp feature as a digital notepad or even a digital locker that lives right inside WhatsApp and that only you can access.
How To Use WhatsApp’s “Message Yourself” Feature
Using the Message Yourself feature in WhatsApp is pretty easy. Here’s how to do it:
- Open the WhatsApp app.
- Tap the new message icon (it looks like a pencil on a notepad).
- Search through the list of contacts and select your name – or just enter your phone number.
- A new chat titled “Message yourself” will appear. Now simply text yourself anything you want.
As mentioned above, one of the best features of WhatsApp’s Message Yourself is that you can send more than just text messages to yourself – you can send audio notes and recording, videos, links, photos, and even documents. In this way, WhatsApp’s Message Yourself is a very handy digital locker.
Also note that when you first message yourself, WhatsApp confirms that anything your text to yourself is end-to-end encrypted. As the notification states: “Messages to yourself are end-to-end encrypted. No one outside of this chat, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to them.”
How To Forward A Message To The “Message Yourself” Chat
WhatsApp’s Message Yourself chat acts just as any other WhatsApp chat works. This means you can forward messages from other chats to yourself in your Message Yourself chat. This is super handy if you want to remember something or view something (like a link or media file) that was sent to you in another chat.
Here is how to forward a message to the Message Yourself Chat:
- Open the chat in WhatsApp that contains the message you want to forward.
- Long press on the message so the contextual menu appears.
- Tap Forward.
- Search through the list of contacts and select your name – or just enter your phone number.
- Tap the Send button.
And that’s it! You now know how to use WhatsApp’s “Message Yourself” feature.
Michael Grothaus
Apple expert and novelist, Michael Grothaus has been covering tech on KnowYourMobile for the best part of 10 years. Prior to this, he worked at Apple. And before that, he was a film journalist. Michael is a published author; his book Epiphany Jones was voted as one of the best novels about Hollywood by Entertainment Weekly. Michael is also a writer at other publications including VICE and Fast Company.
