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It is no doubt Whatsapp is one of the worlds most used messaging platform with over 1.5 billion active users worldwide as of February 2018. From its launching in 2009 to present, Whatsapp has made some significant improvements and added some impressive features. I’m not going to go into details of Whatsapp timeline in this article. My focus in this article is about “Whatsapp Status”.
On February 24, 2017, Whatsapp launched a new Status feature similar to that of Snapchat and Facebook stories. This feature enables its users to post pics, videos that disappear 24 hours later. This feature was intended to share personal moments and memories of its users personal experiences but has since grown to be a place where users post funny memes, pics and videos including media advertising products or services and even religious material. With these, Whatsapp status has become more of an entertainment arena.
One major problem almost everyone faces especially the less technical ones is how to re-share or download media from their contacts status. Some of us just screenshot while others just write a direct message begging for the photo or video. But did you know every picture and video you see on Whatsapp status is stored in your phone? Many people have resolved to downloading third party apps in their phones to help with downloading status. By doing this most people have installed viruses and malware in their phones without knowing and have compromised their security and privacy.
Advice: Always use official apps from verified developers.
How do you get all your friends Whatsapp status without screenshotting or begging for it?
You probably have seen this download button that appears when you have poor connectivity or no internet. It is that download button that got me curious.
Whatsapp downloads every status to your phone. This might be conflicting when you consider the fact they say status disappear after 24 hours and are 100% private.
However, there is a good reason Whatsapp stores the status you see and really it is for your convenience. When a status is downloaded in the background, it saves you time, that is if a media is downloaded already, it doesn't take time to load and also, it saves you data since you will not need to load again using internet.
So where in your phone is the status stored?
When you install Whatsapp, a folder is created in your phone named "Whatsapp" where all your Whatsapp activities is stored, from media to chat backups and your friends status. To access it you just need to go to your file manager. The screenshots I use are from ES File Explorer. I use this app because it is not just a file manager but a productivity app.
When you open the Whatsapp folder, you will see two sub folders - Backup and Media. What you want to open is media because it is in there all your Whatsapp media (Pictures, videos, sounds, voice notes) is stored including your contacts statuses.
When you open the Media folder, you discover that there is a folder for all of your media excluding status. This is because by default the status folder is created as a hidden folder. Whatsapp had to hide this folder to keep you from accessing the statuses because they promised us that statuses would be private.
However this folder can easily be accessed simply by turning on the "Hidden files option" in your file manager.
Turn on reveal hidden files:
NB. Not all file managers have the reveal hidden files option so if your default file manager doesn't have that option, you might want to download one that has. Some file managers come with reveal hidden files by default.
In most file managers, this option is found in the settings menu. For me and those using Es file explorer, the menu button is on the top left corner of the app. Click it and scroll down until you see the Show hidden files option and turn it on.
Once you have instructed your file manager to show you all hidden files, go back to your Whatsapp - media folder. You will discover a new folder has appeared named .Statues. Voila! that is it. Every status you view is downloaded and stored in that folder.
Open it and enjoy your friends unlimited status and kiss goodbye to screenshotting and begging for pics and or vids. You can re-share the media to your own status or send to a friend or group or even share on any other platform of your choice.
NB: The Whatsapp statuses won't sit in your phone forever. After 24hrs, they will disappear. You don't want your phones memory filled with tons of status your contacts post everyday. If these statuses remained in our phones, a lot of us would always have memory shortage problems.
If you would like to keep a status you love forever, you just have to move it from the .Status folder to another folder in your phone. You can just highlight and move or with some file managers, just copy and paste somewhere else.
So that's it for accessing Whatsapp status in your phone.
Now you know you don't have to screenshot and you don't have to feel shy begging for status especially when you not in talking terms with the person in question.
What you also know now is that every status you post actually downloads and its stored in your contacts phone. They can keep it or share it.
Feel free to share this article with those always bugging you for your Whatsapp status.
I'll like you to sign up and contribute your thoughts in the comments section too.
For the records, this article was requested by several people so don't be shy to ask questions or request for info.