When you star a message on WhatsApp, it highlights that message and makes it easier to find later on. But what happens when you star a message in a chat with another person – do they see that you starred the message too?
Quick Answer
No, starring a message on WhatsApp is only visible to you. The other person in the chat will not see that you have starred a particular message. Starring is an individual feature that helps you organize and prioritize messages within chats.
Explaining How Starring Messages Works
Here is a more detailed look at how starring messages works on WhatsApp:
- Starring a message adds a small star icon next to that message. This star is only visible to you, the person who starred the message.
- Your contacts do not see the star icon next to messages you have starred in chats with them.
- Starring helps you find important messages easily later on, as you can filter chats to view just starred messages.
- Messages can only be starred on mobile devices running iOS, Android and KaiOS. Starring is not available on WhatsApp Web/Desktop.
- A message can be starred by tapping and holding on the message, then tapping the star icon.
- On Android, the star icon appears in the action toolbar when selecting a message. On iOS, it is accessed through the pop-up menu.
- Starred messages are synchronized across a user’s devices. Any messages starred on one device will show as starred on their other devices.
So in summary, the starring feature is completely private to each individual user. Your contacts do not see which messages you have starred in chats with them. The star icons are only visible to you.
Why Starring Messages is a Private Feature
WhatsApp designed starring as a private feature for a couple of key reasons:
- Organization – Starring lets users organize and prioritize messages just for themselves. Since everyone organizes information differently, it makes sense for starring to be a personal tool.
- Avoid confusion – If starring was public, it could be confusing to your contacts which messages you found important. Keeping it private avoids any mix-ups.
- Focus on individuals – Public starring might encourage people to star messages just to signal something to others. As a private feature, starring helps individuals find key info when they need it.
Overall, by keeping starring private, WhatsApp has designed it as a personal tool to organize messages for your own convenience.
Examples of How Starring is Used
Here are some common examples of how people use the starring feature in WhatsApp:
- Highlighting important messages from friends and family that you want to easily come back to later.
- Marking key details like dates, times, addresses that you might need to reference again.
- Starred messages from coworkers about important work projects so you can find them quickly.
- Starring any messages that require some kind of follow up action from you.
- Starred messages act like visual reminders of something you need to do.
People often use starring as a way to create visual shortcuts to important information they want to access quickly in the future.
Example 1
John is planning a surprise birthday party for his wife. His friend Sam sends him a WhatsApp message with the details for the venue, cake ordering and decorations. John stars this message so he can quickly access all the party details in WhatsApp instead of looking through other apps or notes.
Example 2
Jenna is chatting with her coworker about an upcoming project deadline. Her coworker mentions the exact date and time for the deadline in a message. Jenna stars this message so she has the key deadline info handy and doesn’t miss delivering her part of the project on time.
Example 3
Mike is chatting with his mechanic about getting some work done on his car. The mechanic shares a message with the date and time Mike should bring his car into the garage. Mike stars this so he knows exactly when to have his car ready without having to ask again.
How to View Starred Messages
WhatsApp makes it easy to view all your starred messages in one place:
- iOS – Tap Settings > Starred Messages
- Android – Tap More options > Starred messages
This brings up your starred messages view, with all your starred messages organized by chat.
You can also see just the starred messages in any individual chat by tapping the name of the chat at the top of the screen, then choosing Starred Messages.
Tips for Managing Starred Messages
Here are some tips to get the most benefit from starring messages on WhatsApp:
- Star messages as soon as you read them to mark key information.
- Periodically review starred messages to make sure they are still relevant.
- Unstar messages once you no longer need quick access to them.
- Star messages from your important contacts like close family and coworkers.
- Add stars to messages throughout a chat thread to highlight multiple key details.
Proper starring technique allows you to keep your starred message view focused on your most important content.
Conclusion
Starring messages on WhatsApp is a handy organizational feature, but it is completely private to each user. Your contacts do not see which messages you have starred in chats with them. The star icon only appears for the person who starred that message. So feel free to liberally apply stars to mark your most important messages on WhatsApp without worrying about signaling anything to anyone else.
| Person 1 | Person 2 | Can Person 2 see Person 1’s starred messages? |
|---|---|---|
| John | Sam | No |
| Jenna | Coworker | No |
| Mike | Mechanic | No |
As the table summarizes, Person 2 in each example cannot see the messages that Person 1 has starred in their WhatsApp chats. So starring messages remains private to each user.
In summary, starring messages is an organizational feature that is only visible to the person who starred the message. It helps you keep track of important info from chats for quick access later. Your contacts do not see which messages you have starred, so feel free to use starring liberally to mark key messages in WhatsApp chats.
And that covers the key points about how message starring functions on WhatsApp! Let me know if you have any other questions.