More than an app, WhatsApp is now considered a means of daily communication. Therefore, parents no longer hesitate to use it to keep in touch with their children. In addition, more and more grandparents also want to use it to receive news from their children and grandchildren. In this case, here is how to present this application to make its use more practical for the elderly.
If your grandparents want to keep up with the movement and stay in touch with those around them via WhatsApp, here’s how to make it more user-friendly.
Typing on your smartphone has become an activity that no one can escape from now. Indeed, to receive news from loved ones, a letter and a stamp are not needed. All you have to do is open the different applications installed on the phone. Without a doubt, WhatsApp is one of the most popular and used in the world. In a few years, the latter has established itself as the benchmark in the sector. For good reason, it allows you to send and receive audio messages, as well as video calls. Practical, when a family member is on the other side of the world. From there, grandparents and the elderly feel compelled to do the same so as not to be left behind.. If, in this case, the use of this application is foreign to you, the following explains how to configure it so that you encounter the fewest possible problems when using it.

Old man holding a smart phone. source: spm
Increase WhatsApp font size
To make the task easier and allow grandparents to regularly check on their children or grandchildren, it is best to improve the size of the characters that appear on the application screen. To do this, simply open WhatsApp, click on the three dots at the top right of the screen, select “Settings”, “Chats”, then “Font size” and choose “Large”. .
Pin the most important WhatsApp chats to the top
It is not uncommon to receive thousands of WhatsApp messages throughout the day. In this case, and to prevent the elderly from getting lost in the midst of all the discussions that have started, it is advisable to set the most important conversations so that they can access them as quickly as possible. In this case, justopen the WhatsApp app, choose the chat to pin and hold and select the pushpin icon which will appear at the top of the screen. Subsequently, the conversation appears in the first position of the thread.

Senior woman making a video call. source: spm
Enable automatic downloads in WhatsApp
As you know, WhatsApp makes it easy to share videos, photos, and other documents and files. To prevent your parents or grandparents from having to download them every time they receive them, simply turn on automatic file download.. To do this, open the application, go to “Settings”, go to the “Data and storage usage” section, select “Use mobile data”, then check all the boxes and repeat the same operation by selecting “Wireless connection”.
Configure WhatsApp privacy settings
In order to preserve the personal data of your parents and grandparents, make sure to configure privacy settings when using the app. Nothing is easier in this case, since all you have to do is open WhatsApp and go to the “Settings” level, click on “Privacy”, and choose only the “My contacts” option for the following options: “Presence online”. ”, “Profile photo”, “News” and “Status”.
Enable automatic backup in WhatsApp
To avoid any loss of data or documents sent or received: photos, videos and other files, it is recommended to enable daily automatic backup via Gmail email account. To achieve this, simply open the app, go to “Settings”, select “Chats”, then “Chats Backup” and “Google Drive Backup”. Finally, select “Daily”.
As you have seen, a few gestures are enough to make it easier for your grandparents and any other elderly person to use WhatsApp. Do not hesitate to put them into practice.
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