How to send WhatsApp messages without saving the number

One of the biggest annoyances of WhatsApp, which I have to explain to everyone new to the app (a number that's dwindling every day), is that you can only start chats with numbers that are saved as phone contacts. The only exception is if you receive a contact's number from someone else inside a WhatsApp chat, in which case you can start talking to them without adding them to your address book first.          [How to send WhatsApp messages without saving the number]

However, there are a few ways to bypass this limitation, one of which is provided by WhatsApp itself, though not natively in the app. If you're not aware of these, I'll explain three of the easiest methods below.
[How to send WhatsApp messages without saving the number]

[How to send WhatsApp messages without saving the number]

In this age of social media, many of us send WhatsApp messages to friends and family almost on a daily basis. Often we get irritated for not being able to send a message to the numbers that we have not fed in the phonebook. But there are methods to send WhatsApp messages to unsaved contacts.

Here are some of the easiest methods for you:

WhatsApp’s wa.me links

The app has an official way for users to contact any number that is not saved on your phone. Users can begin a chat with any number through the URL – https://wa.me/phonenumber. They need to replace the last part with the full number, that too with the country and region code but without the ‘+’ sign.

So for example, if you want to chat with the number +1-254-577-891, the user may go to the URL: https://wa.me/1254577891. Users may type the number in a browser. After this, users can see the web page at the below with a big green Message icon. Once they tap it, users can start a conversation with the other WhatsApp number

[How to send WhatsApp messages without saving the number]

Use an app

In case, users find the aforementioned steps confusing, they may also take the help of an app to speed things up. A number of Android apps use these wa.me links, albeit in a non-user-facing manner, which means users will not have to type a weblink or pass by a web browser, to begin with. They may just enter the phone number, click on a button, soon after they will find the chat in a newly-created screen.

Use an app to speed things up

If the above method seems a little confusing or slow for you, you can use an app to speed things up. Several Android apps use these wa.me links but in a non-user-facing way — i.e. you don't have to type a URL or pass by a web browser first. You simply enter the phone number, tap a button, and you're taken to a newly-created chat in WhatsApp.

Among these apps, Click to chat is the lightest (113 KB), has no ads, and requires no permissions to speak of. Direct Message for Whatsme and Easy Message are a couple of other good alternatives without ads and with few permissions.

[How to send WhatsApp messages without saving the number]

Among the apps, click to chat is the lightest with 113KB. It does not contain any advertisements and does not need any permissions to speak of. Among other good alternatives without ads are Direct Message for WhatsApp and Easy Message.

Text selection and App Actions

The third method may be the lesser known of the bunch — to be honest, I discovered it a few days ago and it's why I'm writing this article. However, it's the easiest, fastest, and best integrated.

Whenever you have a phone number in any app, you can simply select the corresponding text, and check the suggested actions. The main ones are always Call, Cut, Copy, Paste, but if you tap the overflow button (three dots), you may see more options including sending a WhatsApp message. Just select that and the chat will be started.

In our testing, this works on both Android 9 Pie and Q, but only on stock devices (Pixels and Android One). We saw the other actions on Huawei, Samsung, and OnePlus phones, but not the WhatsApp one. Hopefully, the integration will make its way to non-stock Android devices later.

[How to send WhatsApp messages without saving the number]

These workarounds should come in handy if you frequently have short-term chats with strangers. For example, I sometimes have to talk to people to arrange selling or buying some second-hand items, and I don't really need to add all these temporary acquaintances to my contacts. I'm sure you can think of, uhm, other ways this would be useful.

It's not clear why the limitation has to exist inside WhatsApp in the first place, or why you can't simply type a number and message them like on any SMS app, but here we are. Thankfully, we all now have at least three ways to bypass that restriction.

Text selection

This message might be a little unknown. This is, however, the easiest and the fastest. Whenever users have a phone number on any of the apps, they may select the corresponding text and go through advised actions. Among the main ones are Call, Cut, Copy, Paste. However, after tapping the overflow button, users will be able to see more options that include sending a WhatsApp message. Chat will start after selecting it. This method works on both Android 9 Pie and Q, however, on stock devices like Pixels and Android One only.