There are times when you want to read a few messages without opening the chat of a contact. While you can always read all the messages in the notifications panel, there is one more method to check messages without even opening the app.

Step 1: Long press on the home screen and a menu will pop up on your smartphone’s screen.

Step 2: Just tap on Widgets. You will witness a lot of shortcuts there. You need to find the shortcut for WhatsApp.

 

Step 3: You will get different WhatsApp widgets. You need to tap on “4 x 1 WhatsApp” widget.

Step 4: Touch and hold that widget, and then drop it on one of your home screens. After adding it to your screen, you can long-press on the widget to expand it.

You can now read the messages without opening any WhatsApp chat. You will be able to read all your old (unread) messages as well. Do note that if you tap on any of the chats (on widget), then WhatsApp will open that chat and the sender will get to know that you have read the messages.

This was tried on a OnePlus phone. Widgets are available on all smartphones and the process is similar. Users just need to dig a little deeper to find this option. Samsung users will first have to tap on the WhatsApp widget and then swipe right. After that, just tap on the second slide that you see. You now need to tap on the add button. The widget will then appear on the screen.

Those who want to read WhatsApp Web messages without opening the chat also easily do that. All you have to do is place the cursor on the chat once you receive any message on WhatsApp Web. Users will then see a floating message.

This way you won’t be required to open the chat to check the latest message on the web version. It is important to note that you only get to read the latest messages and not the old ones.