Defending your title as “the funny one” in your WhatsApp family group chat is not easy. Especially when you want to recycle a meme or GIF you’ve received in another chat and that “Forwarded” label gives you away.
But you can get rid of that with a little extra tapping, letting your aunties believe you were the one who came up with those funny reactions all on your own.
Why does WhatsApp label forwarded messages
Nothing makes you doubt a message more than a label that says it has been forwarded multiple times. And that’s exactly the point.
A lot of people use WhatsApp’s forwarding feature to spread messages across multiple (and usually crowded) group chats, increasing the odds of virality with minimum input. But as more and more users started disseminating misinformation on the platform, WhatsApp limited the number of chats you could forward a message to five at a time.
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On top of that, the app also started tagging messages forwarded by more than five people. That way, if there were five or more degrees of separation from the original message and the recipient, users would see a “Forwarded many times” label above it.
This is a great way to flag content and deter users from massively spreading any messages containing misinformation. However, when it comes to a funny GIF you want to forward to your friend’s group chat, there’s a way to bypass it.
How to forward messages without a label
If you want to forward a message on WhatsApp, your first instinct would be to long-tap the text on the chat to select it, and then tap on the right-pointing arrow at the top of your screen.
And, well, your instinct would be wrong, as your message would be marked with the stigma of being forwarded.
Instead, long-tap the message you want to resend, hit the three dots in the top right corner of your screen, and then tap on Copy. The platform will immediately let you know the message is now in your clipboard to use as you please.
To resend it, open the recipient’s chat and long-press on the message field until you see a Paste option. Paste it and send it.
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If you want to resend a video, photo, or file, the process is similar. Select the document by long-pressing on it, and open the options by tapping the three dots in the upper right corner of your screen. There, you’ll see ”copy” is not an option—instead, hit Share. The platform will then redirect you to the sharing screen, where you’ll be able to choose a frequent WhatsApp contact, or another messaging app altogether. If the chat you want to send your meme to is not there, choose WhatsApp at the bottom of the menu, and select the contact you want to send it to.
If this process sounds a bit too complicated just to resend a meme, keep in mind that it’s by design. Just think of all the time and tapping you’d have to invest to make a message go viral using this method. Because of that, use it responsibly and just stick to making your aunties laugh with funny memes and GIFs.