WhatsApp is the simplest of the six. There is no username to restrict, because WhatsApp identifies you by phone number, so there is no identity field checking your characters against an allowlist. Your About line, any message and any group name all take styled text and keep it. Paste it and it stays.

WhatsApp does have its own formatting inside a chat: asterisks for bold, underscores for italic, tildes for strikethrough. That only applies to messages, and only inside WhatsApp. It does nothing in your About or in a group name, and it does not survive being copied out to another app. Unicode styles do, which is why they are worth using for the parts of your profile that people see before they open a chat.

Stick to bold, sans bold, cursive, bold cursive, gothic, outline, bubble, small caps and vaporwave. Those replace each letter with a single character and render cleanly on iOS, Android and the desktop app. Avoid strikethrough, underline, overline, slashed and glitch here. WhatsApp draws the combining marks inconsistently across its clients, so a line that looks right on your phone can look smudged on someone else's.

Safest styles here

Bold 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 Italic 𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡 Bold italic 𝑺𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕 Sans bold 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁 Sans serif 𝖲𝖺𝗆𝗉𝗅𝖾 𝗍𝖾𝗑𝗍 Monospace 𝚂𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚎𝚡𝚝 Cursive 𝒮𝒶𝓂𝓅𝓁ℯ 𝓉ℯ𝓍𝓉 Bold cursive 𝓢𝓪𝓶𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓽𝓮𝔁𝓽

Think twice about

Strikethrough S̶a̶m̶p̶l̶e̶ t̶e̶x̶t̶ Underline S̲a̲m̲p̲l̲e̲ t̲e̲x̲t̲ Overline S̅a̅m̅p̅l̅e̅ t̅e̅x̅t̅ Slashed S̸a̸m̸p̸l̸e̸ t̸e̸x̸t̸ Glitch S͖͓̫͓͓̀̀̐a̢̛͇̞̙͛̃̑m̨͈͈̠͍͗͗̍p͔̥̜̥͌̏̐͆l̛̪͉̜̽̄̾̕e͍̱͓̋͐͌͆ͅ t͈͓͖̀̉̏́ͅe͕̺̖̭̔̋͆͆x͕͍̦̰̪͗̐̿t̢͙͇͎̳̿̑͊ Cursed S̖̀a͉̐m̫̀p͓͐l̜͛ȇ̙ t̞̎ẽ̢x͙͗t̩̍

Frequently asked questions

Quick answers to what people ask us most

Can I use styled text in my WhatsApp name?

Yes. WhatsApp has no username rules to trip over, because your account is tied to a phone number. Your profile name, your About and your group names all accept styled characters.

What is the difference between this and the asterisk bold in WhatsApp?

The asterisk trick is WhatsApp formatting. It works only inside a chat message and only in WhatsApp, and it is lost if the text is copied elsewhere. These styles are characters, so they hold in your About, in a group name and anywhere you paste them.

Will the person receiving it see the same thing?

In most cases yes, as long as their device has a font covering the characters. Bold, italic, cursive and gothic are safe. The filled bubble and filled square styles are the ones most likely to appear as boxes on an older phone.

Does styled text break the search in WhatsApp?

Yes, for the styles that replace letters. Searching your chats for a word will not match a styled version of it, because the characters are different. That is a reason to keep a group name partly plain.