How to use WhatsApp Plus Features for Free on Android and iPhone

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Meta has been making news recently due to its newly announced Plus plans. The Plus plans are available for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. While the reasons to get the Plus plan for Facebook and Instagram are somewhat reasonable, the Plus plan simply make no sense when it comes to Whatsapp.

With the Plus subscription for WhatsApp, you get the option to change the chat themes, app icon, get premium stickers, etc. Now, the majority of WhatsApp users use the platform for text messages, audio calls, and video calls; the other features, such as themes, app icons, and sticker packs, are not that interesting for everyone.

What if we told you that you can technically get all these features from WhatsApp Plus for free? PS: You don’t have to use mods, third-party clients, or some discount coupons for this. Here’s what you need to do.

How to use WhatsApp Plus Features for Free?

A lot of the features that are marketed as Plus features for WhatsApp are not really worth paying for. It does feel like Meta took a look at Snapchat+ and said, “Alright, let’s add a subscription plan to our messaging platform, and hope that users pay for things that they didn’t ask for.”

Chat Themes, Colors, and Wallpapers

WhatsApp introduced Chat Themes to the platform last year. You are able to change the color of the chat bubbles and the background. Sure, WhatsApp Plus will bring in some fancy type of themes, color options, and backgrounds, but that doesn’t mean you have to get the subscription. You can currently do all of this within the Chat Theme settings present in the app, all for free. Here’s how you can do that.

In WhatsApp, open a chat whose theme you would like to change.
In the chat screen, tap on the three dots menu in the top right corner and select Chat Theme.
Here you will see several preset themes for you to choose from.
Tap on the theme of your choice to play around with the background wallpaper, its brightness, and the chat bubble colors. Once you have found the right choice, tap on the green tick mark to apply the theme to your chat.
Instead of picking from the preset wallpaper options, you can also select an image by using the built-in Meta AI, select a solid color, or pick your favorite image from your Gallery.

If you want some interesting yet cool wallpapers for your WhatsApp chats, you can download our PhoneWalls app for Android and iOS. There is a large collection of stock device wallpapers as well as AI-generated ones.

With WhatsApp Plus, you will be able to change the color of the UI. But again, is that something that users are going to be bothered with? I doubt that.

Premium Sticker Packs

While the Plus plan will bring in several premium sticker packs for you to use, not everyone will use them since they may not be the type of stickers that users want to use. In this case, creating and using custom stickers is much better as there are countless sticker packs available for you to install from your device’s App store, and also the existence of various apps that let you create your own stickers.

If you want to create custom stickers for your WhatsApp chats, it’s pretty simple and easy. In fact, you can easily get it done by using the app itself. Just follow these steps:

Launch WhatsApp on your smartphone and open any chat.
Tap on the smile icon/sticker present on the left side of the text box.
Here, you will see all the emoji and stickers that have been recently used, as well as the different sticker packs that you have installed from the WhatsApp sticker store.
A small Create icon will be visible here.
Tap on it to create a sticker either from your Gallery, or you can choose to create any sticker of your choice by using AI.

If you’re too lazy to create stickers and are looking for stickers that have been created by someone else, you can check out the following sticker apps for WhatsApp from the Google Play Store. (The Apple App Store asp has a decent number of sticker apps, but since I have an Android smartphone, I’ve listed apps that you can install from the Play Store.)

Custom Notification and Ringtone Sounds

Meta adding the custom ringtones and notifications as a Plus option seems hilarious. Since when did adding custom ringtones and notifications to a messaging app become a premium feature? Anyway, if you have finally decided to change the ringtones and notifications for WhatsApp, you need to follow these steps:

Open WhatsApp and tap on the three dots option in the top right corner.
Choose Settings from the menu.
With the settings menu open, scroll and tap on Notifications.
Under the Messages, Groups, and Calls sections, you will have the option to pick your custom notification sounds.
You can choose any of the notifications or ringtones that come preloaded with your smartphone for your WhatsApp messages and calls.
If you want to add a notification or ringtone from external sources, simply copy the audio file to the ringtones and notifications folder on your device and then select it from the notifications options in WhatsApp.

To make things even more interesting, you can also download apps from the App Store that let you download and set third-party notifications and ringtones from anywhere.

Create Lists To Replace Pinned Chats

By default, WhatsApp lets you pin up to three chats, which might be enough for a few users, but it is clearly not enough for the majority of users. While the Plus subscription lets you pin up to 20 chats, this doesn’t justify the need for you to purchase the Plus subscription. Instead of pinning chats, you can simply add specific chats together by adding them to a list. Also, you can create as many lists as you like and not have to worry about missing out on important chats. Here’s how you can create lists on WhatsApp.

Open WhatsApp on your device.
At the top of the main screen of the app, you should see a few tabs, namely All and Unread.
Tap on the little tab with the plus icon and give the list a name.
Now, simply search for the contacts that you want to add to this list.
You can also add group chats to this list.

Once you have created your lists, you don’t have to worry about pinning any chats. Simply tap on the tab and never miss a chat.

WhatsApp App Icon

Now, this is actually a new Plus feature that lets you change the app icon once you pay for the subscription. Anyone who decides to get the Plus subscription just to change the app icon is silly. Why would you want to pay for this feature, especially if you use WhatsApp on an Android smartphone, when you can change this for free?

The beauty of Android is its wide customization options. You can easily change the app icon for not only WhatsApp, but for literally any app in the app launcher by installing an icon pack. Now, not all stock app launchers let you install icon packs, so installing a good and reliable third-party launcher is the ideal solution.

A good number of these party launchers that you can install are:

Action Launcher
Apex Launcher
Evie Launcher
GO Launcher
Lawn chair Launcher
Microsoft Launcher
Nova Launcher
One UI Home (Samsung stock launcher)
Smart Launcher

As for icon packs, there are hundreds of free as well as paid icon packs that you can install. Since WhatsApp is a very popular messaging platform around the globe, you will have no issue finding icons that you can use with it.

Closing Thoughts

This concludes the various elements that you can change and do in WhatsApp without the need to buy the WhatsApp Plus subscription. Is the WhatsApp Plus subscription something that WhatsApp users really need? Absolutely not. It just feels like Meta is launching these plans to see whether people will blindly purchase such plans and then slowly increase the prices when they notice that users are paying for this consistently.

There is, however, a little worry that Meta might nuke away some existing free features that we have listed above and make them paid. If Meta does end up pulling that move, it probably will begin the downfall of WhatsApp as users slowly migrate to other options out there.

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