Put a symbol on both sides of the words: *bold*, _italic_, ~strikethrough~ and three backticks around monospace. Type them with no space between the symbol and the text, and WhatsApp formats the words as soon as you send.
That covers WhatsApp. Everywhere else, from an Instagram bio to a plain SMS, those symbols do nothing and just show up as symbols. For those places you need a different trick, covered below.
The codes
- *bold* An asterisk on each side. Becomes bold.
- _italic_ An underscore on each side. Becomes italic.
- ~strikethrough~ A tilde on each side. Becomes crossed out.
- ```monospace``` Three backticks on each side. Becomes a fixed-width font, like typed code.
- `inline code` A single backtick on each side. The same fixed-width look, for a few words inside a sentence.
- - item A hyphen and a space at the start of a line. Becomes a bulleted list.
- 1. item A number, a full stop and a space. Becomes a numbered list.
- > quote A greater-than sign and a space. Becomes an indented quote block.
The lists, quote and inline code are the newer ones. WhatsApp added them later, across Android, iPhone, Web and Mac, so if a friend sees the raw symbols, they are probably on an old version of the app.
Without typing symbols
On your phone, you don't have to remember any of this. Select the words in the message box and pick Bold, Italic, Strikethrough or Monospace from the menu that appears. It types the symbols for you.
Using two at once
Bold and italic can nest. Wrap the words in both, like *_this_*, and they come out bold and italic. Monospace is the odd one out, so don't expect it to mix with the others.
When it doesn't work
Nearly always it is one of three things:
- A space inside the symbols. * bold* does nothing. It has to be *bold*, with the symbol touching the word.
- A missing closing symbol. *bold with one asterisk shows the asterisk. Both sides, every time.
- A line break in the middle. The formatting stops at the end of a line, so keep each styled phrase on one line.
Where the codes don't work
Instagram bios and comments, TikTok bios, plain SMS and most profile name fields have no formatting at all. The asterisks and tildes appear literally. That is where people reach for a font generator.
It works differently. Unicode includes whole alphabets of lookalike letters, such as bold and italic forms made for mathematics, and a generator swaps your letters for those. The result is real text, so you can paste it into any app that accepts text.
What to know before you use it
- It isn't search-friendly. Styled letters are different characters, so a styled name won't match a search for the plain one.
- Screen readers struggle. Some read each styled letter out as a maths symbol, or skip it. Keep styled text to a few words, not a whole bio.
- It costs SMS space. A styled word pushes a text onto the 70-character limit, so keep it for chats and bios, not SMS.
- Not every font has every letter. On some devices a styled letter shows as an empty box.
If you only need to cross something out, the strikethrough generator does just that. For a bold or fancy name, the font generator has more styles than you will ever use.
Where to go from here
- Strikethrough text generator for crossed-out text that pastes into apps with no button for it
- Font generator bold, italic and a lot more, as plain text you can paste anywhere
- Fancy text generator for names and bios