WhatsApp adds support for reminders; here's how it works

When it comes to features, WhatsApp is known to trail behind Telegram. However, the Meta-owned messaging app has been doing its best to catch up lately with the addition of new features. As a matter of fact, WhatsApp now has a feature that isn't available on Telegram — and that's a reminder.

This should not be confused with a message scheduler which is available on Telegram but not on WhatsApp. While a message scheduler allows you to set a time for a message to be sent to a recipient, WhatsApp's ‘Remind me’ feature allows you to set a reminder on a message that has been sent or received.

With this, users can choose a time to be reminded about a particular message such as an event, an appointment, or maybe a topic you wish to revisit in the future. The feature seems to be available only to beta testers for now, but will likely be made available to all users eventually.

Here's how to use the message reminder feature:

• Long press a message you sent or received in a chat. This should bring up a menu at the top of the screen which includes a bunch of icons including a bell icon.
• Tap on the bell icon. A dialog box should appear at the bottom of the screen.
• Select any of the pre-set times — 2 hours, 8 hours, or 24 hours — or choose ‘Custom’ to select a specific date and time you want to be reminded. Once done, a small bell icon will appear near the timestamp of the selected message.

Users can set multiple reminders on different messages in the same chat or in different chats. They can also remove a reminder by long pressing the message with a reminder and tapping the bell icon at the top of the screen. Only the person who set the reminder gets notified about it.

There are many use cases for the Remind me feature one of which is a reminder for an event whose invite was sent via WhatsApp. Setting a reminder on the message will prevent users from forgetting. Users can also use it as personal reminders since WhatsApp now has a feature that lets you message yourself. Users can set a reminder on a link to an article or video so that they can read or watch it later.