I have to admit, at first I didn't want to deal with this topic: I thought it was a bit too frivolous and irreverent. But in the face of the countless requests I have received from my friends via email, on Facebook and even in person, I can no longer refrain from doing it. What am I referring to? It embarrasses me a little to say it, but here it is… it's about using the middle finger on WhatsApp!
The middle finger is an emoji, which is a symbol that can be used in chats, which allows you to express your disappointment or to respond in an irreverent way to another person's messages. It can be used within WhatsApp, but also other applications not necessarily related to the world of messaging, and is available on all major smartphone operating systems. It can even be used on a computer via the WhatsApp Web service, but we'll deal with this later. Now let's focus on the smartphone area.
If you too are dying to discover like having the middle finger on WhatsApp, follow the directions I am about to give you. Time a few minutes and you will be able to amaze your friends with this goliardic emoji (as long as they too have a version of WhatsApp compatible with the latter). Good fun!
Middle finger on WhatsApp for Android
WhatsApp for Android officially introduced middle finger emoji support with version 2.12.194. To check which version of WhatsApp is installed on your mobile, open the application, press the button (...) collocato in alto a destra and seleziona la voce Settings from the menu that appears. In the screen that opens, then select the items Help> Info and you will know what version of the application is installed on your smartphone.
If you are using a WhatsApp release prior to 2.12.194, update the application to the latest version available by opening the Google Play Store (the white bag icon with the "play" symbol in the center found on the screen with all the applications installed on the device) and pressing the icon to hamburger that you find at the top left.
Then select the item Le mie app ei miei giochi from the left sidebar and first presses the icon of WhatsApp and then on the button Update to download the latest version of the application. If any steps are not clear to you, feel free to consult my guide on how to update WhatsApp for free in which I have dealt with the topic in more detail.
Now open WhatsApp, select the conversation in which you want to use the middle finger emoji and press the icon of smiley located in the text entry field. Next, select the smiley face from the gray bar that appears at the bottom, scroll down the menu with the emojis and press on the emoji of the middle finger.
If after selecting the emoji you press and hold your finger on it for a few seconds, you can insert some variants of the symbol with different skin tones in the chat.
In the unfortunate event that you are unable to enable the middle finger emoji in WhatsApp, try connecting to this Emojipedia page using your smartphone and copy-and-paste the symbol in WhatsApp conversations. To copy the emoji, keep your finger pressed on it for a few seconds (in order to select it) and press the button Copy which appears at the top right (the icon of the two sheets).
On some devices, the emoji, before being pasted into WhatsApp, may appear as a rectangle with an "x" inside. To copy it, select the black rectangle that appears before the writing Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended on Emojipedia and presses the button Copy which appears at the top right.
When the operation is complete, open WhatsApp and select the conversation in which you want to insert the middle finger. Keep your finger pressed in the text entry field and press the item Paste that appears on the screen. Et voilà, mission accomplished!
Middle finger on WhatsApp for iPhone
If you are using an iPhone, for have the middle finger on WhatsApp you need to update your phone to iOS 9.1 or later, you need to activate the emoji keyboard in the operating system settings and you need to install a version of WhatsApp equal to or higher than 2.12.6. But let's go in order.
- To update iOS to the latest version available, go to the menu Settings of your iPhone (the gear icon that you find on the phone home screen), select the items General> Software update from the screen that opens and agree to install the available updates. Warning: if you have jailbroken your "iPhone by", the iOS update will disable it and you will lose all your tweaks. For more information on this procedure, read my tutorial on how to update iOS.
- To activate the keyboard with emojis, go to settings iOS, select the items General> Keyboard> Keyboards from the screen that opens and presses the button Add new keyboard. Dopodiché selects the voice Emoji from the list of available keyboards and that's it.
- To update WhatsApp to the latest version available, open theApp Store (the "A" icon on a blue background located on the home screen), select the card Updates located at the bottom right and presses the button Update located next to the application icon. For more info see my guide on how to update WhatsApp on iPhone.
After completing the above steps, open WhatsApp and select the discussion where you want to insert the emoji with your middle finger. Then press on the text entry field, press the icon twice consecutively globe located at the bottom left of the iOS keypad and locate the emoji with your middle finger.
To easily find the middle finger emoji, press the icon of the smiley face bottom left (section Emoticons and people) and swipe the menu that opens a couple of times to the left. By holding your finger on the emoji, you can view alternate versions with different skin tones.
Do the middle finger on WhatsApp Web
As you surely know well (and as I explained abundantly in my tutorial on how to use WhatsApp Web), WhatsApp can also be used from a PC via WhatsApp Web, a free service that uses the smartphone as a "bridge" to chat directly from Chrome, Firefox and other supported browsers.
Well, even in WhatsApp Web you can easily take advantage of the middle finger emoji. Just copy-and-paste from Emojipedia (as explained above for Android systems) or you can use the virtual keyboards of Windows and Mac OS X.
If you are using a PC equipped with Windows 10, you can find the emojis by clicking on the icon first keyboard located next to the system clock (to view it you need to right click on the taskbar and select the item Show virtual keyboard button from the menu that opens) and then on smiley face located on the Windows virtual keyboard. If you are using a Mac, you can access the emoji menu by pressing the key combination cmd + ctrl + space or by selecting the item Edit> Emojis and Symbols from your browser menu.
