WhatsApp practice chat for the curious traveler

Here's the parent thread:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/what-s-app-being-trialed-for-rs-tours

In the other thread we were saying that WhatsApp is in common use everywhere but in the USA and a lot of back and forth ensued.

Anyhoo, when I was at the new Hyatt in Rouen last autumn, I am now recalling that the front desk checked in with me using WhatsApp -- for instance asking if the bathroom was clean and/or needed any supplies.

iirc, the bespoke Marriott and Hilton apps have chat functions built in for this kind of interaction, at least in the USA., but the interaction is more limited, like you have some boxes to check for various items...

My first question is how do others of you join it?

I don't know what I'm missing, when I tap on 'communities' it will allow me to start a community but nowhere can I find how to join one. The WhatsApp instructions when I Googled were no help either.

I purposely used WhatsApp this morning when the Zurich and Amsterdam airports websites offered to give me flight status updates via WhatsApp. I did get the updates, but not before I was informed of my flight statuses by other means, i.e. KLM airline app.

If you want to practice with how to use WhatsApp, setting up a community is not the best approach. You won’t communicate with hotels, restaurants etc via a community but via a direct chat. Tour guides won’t start a community, they will start a group chat. To start a chat with someone, you’ll first need to have their phone number and they need to be registered with WhatsApp. Once you’ve added them to your contact list and if they have WhatsApp too, you can start a chat by going to the chats, clicking on the + symbol and selecting the name of the person or business you want to chat with. If you want to start a new group chat, you click on the same + symbol and select “new group” at the top of the screen. You can then name the group and select the names of those you wish to make a member of the group.

If you want to practice with sending messages, photos, videos, website links in a chat in WhatsApp, the easiest way is to start a chat with yourself. Yes, WhatsApp allows you to chat with yourself. You can for instance send the website of a restaurant that someone recommends you to this chat. Or a reminder to do something. I know there are other apps or ways to keep track of things like that, but if you want to practice sending messages in WhatsApp the chat-with-yourself-option is very helpful.
To start a chat with yourself, go to the Chat tab, click on + and select your own name/number. It should be the first contact in the list of contacts.
You can then start practicing with WhatsApp.

Very helpful info from Dutch Traveler.

If anyone would like me to add them to the practice chat by sending me an email address or phone number in the DM here on the forum, please do so -- I will not use your info for anything else.

In his most recent blog post Cameron Hewitt says we should get familiar with WhatsApp:

https://blog.ricksteves.com/cameron/2025/06/dozen-europe-travel-hacks

so I am not going to give up on this little practice chat in WhatsApp yet.

Recall -- if you want to join the chat, DM me here with an email address or phone number.

I will make no other use of it.

Ok folks. You download the app. You hit the green plus sign. Tap on new group. Tap on the people from your contact list that you want to add to the group. Name the group and then create. Chat with your friends. Note that to add someone to the group chat you have to have them entered as a contact on your phone.

It is also not necessary to create a group. You can just chat with people directly who are in your contact list.

Don’t do communities. Use the group chat or individual chat. That’s what people do. This really isn’t hard - I feel like everyone is making it a lot harder than necessary.

Yes yes --

if you (anyone) want to join the chat, DM me here with an email address or phone number.

There is a small handful of takers so far, but we could do with some more practice.

I find WhatsApp very intuitive, and I use to send files, photos, text and often both voice only and full video calls.

I think Zoom is best for webinars and for video calls with several squares. Teams is ok. WhatsApp does multi square calls but not as well.

WhatsApp is not known or used in the US as commonly as in Europe, so most Americans aren't familiar with it. It's come up in discussions of usage during RS tours. Many people here are uncomfortable with yet another app they need to learn and deal with.

Our RS tour guide setup a WhatsApp group chat to use. In the evening posted next day’s itinerary. She even posted links to websites for optional site seeing and meal options.

I’m more than happy to help those wanting to learn about WhatsApp. I will however not share my phone number, so I won’t be able to join the chat.
And yes, I do know it’s a new app for most Americans, but as others have mentioned as well, it’s very intuitive. If you have any questions about WhatsApp, you're welcome to post them here, so those of us that use it daily can help you.

I will just note that WhatsApp is far easier than texting for sending photos toa friend / a group. Or any other media - it's just way more user friendly for sending /viewing photos, clips, etc.

Our neighborhood has almost 50% home owners from other counties, primarily India. It is also a pretty tech savvy group. So when we moved in, right as Covid hit, we were invited to use WhatsApp with a sent link by a neighbor to get info on the neighborhood. It is a very active group and we have found it easy to use especially since there are many people on it. I find it just as easy to use as Apple messaging for example. If you can use messaging systems on your phone then I think you can communicate using WhatsApp. My husband and I are in our 70s so we are typical RS tour members.

Thank you stan for explaining the motivation for putting up this thread about starting a practice chat in WhatsApp.

Here again is the posting that I was trying to be a good forum citizen about:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/what-s-app-being-trialed-for-rs-tours

I also wanted to temper the enthusiasm that commenters have expressed regarding the convenience of WhatsApp by reminding us all that if you are not paying for something, then you are not the client. You are the product.

Meta uses the data it collects regarding you, most notably the access you give them to your addressbook, for more return than your usage of WhatsApp costs them. Much more. Touting that the contents of your messages are encrypted and secure is more than a bit disingenuous.

Here's some relevant info:

https://medium.com/illumination/how-whatsapp-secretly-collects-and-shares-your-data-26b643e45928

An interesting piece from the UK desk of Wired from 2021:

https://www.wired.com/story/whatsapp-instagram-facebook-data/#:~:text=Data%20WhatsApp%20can%20share%20with,%2Dcalled%20“Facebook%20companies”.

Nick as long as you have the WhatsApp app on your phone, all another user needs is your phone number to send a text via WhatsApp. I don't know, but there may still be countries or providers where text messages have a charge for the sender or receiver.

We used it recently with a friend who was on a round-the world cruise, stopping in many countries. It was a great convenience to talk with her that way, and less complicated for her to figure out.

I understand the reluctance to trust the providers of these kind of services, but I feel the same way about things like Google Pay and Apple Pay (which I also use). Too many people who know your business, and others wanting their hands on your data.

“How does this work? Did they assume I was on WhatsApp or send me "normal" text messages which my phone then diverted to WhatsApp?”

They didn’t assume. They saved your telephone number into their phone and then looked you up in their WhatsApp. If you didn’t have Whatsapp installed, they wouldn’t have been able to send you a message via WhatsApp.

I'm going to try to address the misunderstandings in this thread so far.

• Both Stan and I have said more than twice that the motivation for starting the practice chat in WhatsApp and advertising it here was the greater than expected interest shown by members of the Forum in the tours section regarding usage of WhatsApp while on tours in Europe. Nowhere there in that thread or here in this thread did I say that I was doing this because I wanted WhatsApp practice for myself. I did it for the good of the community. That is why I assured everyone early on and often that I would not be looking or engaging in the chat myself more than is necessary-- so that no one would be concerned that I was doing this for some other reason.

• I thanked Dutch traveler for the good information they provided on behalf of everyone who might benefit from it upthread.

• Somehow it has been misconstrued this thread to be about me or my use of WhatsApp or my politics somehow. I assure you that is not the case.

Back to the topic: Is there a way to add specific people to a WhatsApp chat without granting WhatsApp full access to the addressbook on your phone?

Folks, I've removed a number of posts in this thread.

It seems that several people have not understood the purpose of this thread, and I believe the OP has now clarified that. The other thread being mentioned provides the context necessary to understand it if you find yourself confused. Please note that openly questioning the purpose of a thread is itself a violation of our guidelines as it inherently moves the discussion away from the intended discussion. If you don't wish to participate in the WhatsApp community that Avirosemail created as a testing ground, or if you find that this is not the best way to learn, that's OK.

If you'd like to post questions here about the best way to use WhatsApp or if you have specific questions, I think that's in bounds. There is a community here trying to be helpful.

Ultimately, I find that everyone here is simply trying to be helpful, and a misunderstanding was getting in the way of that. Let's move forward assuming best intentions and allow for this thread to be here to help those who need it with WhatsApp.

Thanks, everyone!

Back to the topic: Is there a way to add specific people to a WhatsApp chat without granting WhatsApp full access to the addressbook on your phone?

Avi, I am 99.9% sure that you cannot add someone to a WhatApp chat without granting the app access to your address book. I've checked on that in the past and it just can't be done.

Also, Avi, if you need others in the chat for practice, I'm happy to help. I've been using WhatsApp for almost 10 years now, so I don't need the practice but I would be willing to chat so that others can. PM me if it would help.

Thanks Mardee -- when I get a chance I will try the share-a-link-to-join feature within WhatsApp on my phone to let you join the practice chat. That might be one way to sort of work around the issue of letting Meta see the entirety of an address book, maybe?

Maybe not!

It's not like other apps are innocent themselves, but considering for a minute how our address books contain info about who our relatives and doctors and co-workers and so on are makes for quite a spiderweb of relationships that we are letting Meta vacuum up...

One of those article links I put upthread mentions that there was a problem arising where Facebook was suggesting people you might want to 'friend' that included the sex workers in the WhatsApp chats of the participants. After all, how is the Meta analysis 'bot supposed to know that you're not having a late lunch every other Tuesday at the hotel bar?

I’ve been added to a community. That’s not what people use. People use a group chat on WhatsApp. If you really want to practice, then set up a group not a community. You’ve over complicated things.

I am happy to create a WhatsApp group for interested participants. I promise to keep your contact details only for the purposes of creating this group. I use WhatsApp all day long for years, so please let me be your guide.

If you want to join, then please send me your phone number in a private message and I'll add you to the group.

-Emily

w/r/t Mardee and Emily's comments above about the joining community/group/chat and the necessity of giving the app your addressbook, I want to point out that in some panes of the app there is a link symbol next to the + symbol,
and under that sub-pane there is an option to copy a 'join' link that generates a url with the codename for the group/chat/community in question.

It might not be a wise move for a somewhat public forum here on RSE, but I'm going to paste the practice chat group that we started above down here. If any of you think that's a really bad idea, please say so and why you think so.

Right now there are five members in the chat; let's see what happens next.

-- Link removed by Webmaster, see post below --

Please consider that what I’m about to write, is written with nothing but my best intentions.
WhatsApp only works with phone numbers, you can’t send someone a message via WhatsApp if you don’t have their phone number. If you send someone your phone number and they add you to a group chat or if you click on the invitation link, everyone in the group chat will see your phone number and likewise you’ll see the phone number of every person in the WhatsApp group chat. I’m 100% sure that Emily and Avirosemail have the best intentions when they offered to set up a practice group chat, but please be very careful. If someone with bad intentions reads this topic and asks to be added to the practice group chat or clicks on the invitation link, they too will be able to see the phone numbers of everyone in the group.

If you want to practice with WhatsApp it might be safer to set up a chat with yourself. I already explained how to do that earlier. Or you can practice using WhatsApp with a friend, family member, neighbor etc. that you know and trust.

avirosemail, now you have six members. A noble effort that I will not leave unanswered.

I live off WhatsApp. Easiest way to communicate, send files, photos, videos, share content and even from time to time book reservations.

I've removed Avi's link. I agree that it poses a privacy risk if it is left open to the public.

However, I don't think Avi will mind too much if you want to send a PM and ask for the link (feel free to correct me here, Avi). Avi can check to see if it's appropriate to share the link with you. This would be a reasonable way to make sure that established forum members with a genuine interest in our community - and not a random person on the internet - can join.

Anyone joining should still understand that their phone number is being shared, and per usual this forum and RSE are not liable for any actions you take outside of this forum.

I would appreciate it very much if some of the experienced users of the app would consider joining this chat but do so using the link that I can send you by PM --

I want to do this because as of this morning Mardee and Emily and I have demonstrated that we can see each other's posts in the group chat without having them be in my contacts on my iPhone.

In case that is a fluke, I'd like to try it out with a few more brave souls.

When Mardee used the link to join the group chat, as the owner/admin of the group chat I got a message asking me if I wanted to block or add her to my contacts -- I clicked on neither button. She is still in the group, and as I say, we can see each other's posts and each other's names and phone numbers, but Mardee is not, I repeat not, in the contacts/addressbook of my iPhone.

I was interested, and am still interested, in seeing if someone can join a group chat without being in the contacts of the owner/initiator/admin of that group chat, and it appears to me so far that that is indeed possible.
My interest has to do not with concern about whether members of a chat can see the number or name of other people in the chat, but whether Meta must have full access to the contacts on the phone of users of the WhatsApp app. That is still TBD.

I realize that this does not align with what several commenters have said here on this thread. All I can do is tell you what is happening -- Mardee and I are chatting in a group chat in WhatsApp but Mardee (neither her name nor number nor email address) is in the contacts list on my phone.

Let me reiterate again further additionally:

When I say above

" I clicked on neither button. "

what I mean is that when WhatsApp informed me that Mardee had joined the group chat and asked if I wanted to block or add her, I did not click on the block button or the add button. Mardee remains in the group, can chat with other members of the group, but does not appear when I search or scroll in my contacts list on my phone.

Emily, by contrast, does appear in the contacts list of my phone, because I added her using the '+' button in the app.

There are 2 ways in which you can add someone to a group chat. When someone is already in the contact list on your phone, you can add them via the + button. When you click this button, WhatsApp will give you a list with the names of every contact in your phone’s contact list who uses WhatsApp. It’s able to display this list, because it checks the telephone number of all your contacts against their database with phone numbers of users of WhatsApp.
If someone isn’t in your contacts, you can send them an invitation link. If someone clicks on that link, WhatsApp will check your contact list to see if they’re already in your contacts. If the person who clicked on the link is not in your phone’s contact list, you’ll get the warning that someone who’s not in your contact list wants to join the chat. This is what happened when Mardee joined the chat. WhatsApp wouldn’t have been able to tell you that Mardee wasn’t in your contact list, if it didn’t have access to your contact list. What it did when Mardee clicked the link, was quickly checki if their phone number was in your contact list or not. When it didn’t find the telephone number of Mardee in your contact list, it displayed the message you mentioned. If Mardee’s phone number was already in your contact list, you would have gotten a different message. So it wasn’t a fluke that Mardee was able to join the chat without being in your contact list first, it’s the normal workings of WhatsApp.

Just wanted to add that WhatsApp continues to check your contact list every time you use the app.
You said you’ve added Emily to your contacts. This means that when you open the group chat, you’ll see her name displayed above her posts. WhatsApp does this, because her telephone number is listed in your contacts as “Emily”. Should you have made a spelling mistake when you added her to your contacts and wrote her name as “Emmily”, the name “Emmily” will appear above her messages. If you listed her in your contact list as “Emily from the RS forum” then that is what will appear. The people in the group chat who you didn’t add to your contact list, will have their phone number displayed above their messages. But as soon as you add one of these people to your contact list, Mardee for instance, their name instead of their number will appear. If you delete Mardee from your contact list, you will see her number instead of her name again. Every time you open WhatsApp, the app checks your contact list to check what to display above people’s messages; their phone number or the name you assigned to a particular phone number in your contact list.
So every time you open the app WhatsApp accesses your contact list.

"As of this morning Mardee and Emily and I have demonstrated that we can see each other's posts in the group chat without having them be in my contacts on my iPhone"

Yes, that's how it works - you can of course see messages on a group chat without having that person in your phone contacts.

Here in Singapore there's a whatsapp group chat for pretty much everything- kids' birthday parties, volunteer groups, parent's groups, schools, work projects (lots of those)... if everyone on those chats was in my contacts, I'd have thousands of contacts. Hence you don't need to have them as contacts.

To address the privacy issue, WhatsApp says it does not access your entire address book, but needs access to contacts to match those who ARE in your address book with the messages on whatsapp. Make of this what you will. For me convenience trumps privacy. Given that virtually every message or call I receive, including business, is via whatsapp, I really don't have a choice.