We can no longer hide it, we are now dependent on Whatsapp, the Facebook messaging application, similar to Telegram, even if the latter is much more complete and secure, and is (one does not know how) always one step ahead to WhatsApp in terms of updates and features.
One of the main problems that WhatsApp has and many of us complain about, is that WhatsApp forces us to save the number of the person to whom we want to send the message, in the address book contacts on our phone.
Fortunately, there are several ways to skip this restriction, something that can be very useful in case we need to send a WhatsApp message to someone and we don’t want to add it as a contact.
3 ways to send a WhatsApp message to someone without adding it as a contact
Use the Click to chat function
The first method is directly explained in the FAQs of the same WhatsApp page and is really simple to use. We will only need the number of the person to whom we want to send the message, a smartphone or a computer.
To create the conversation we need to enter the following address in a Web browser https://wa.me/<numeroditelefono>; where <numeroditelefono>is the phone number in full international format e.g +2349012345678. It will look like this: https://wa.me/+2349012345678 once inserted. We will only have to access the generated link and start chatting with the person in question.
Click to chat works both on phone and on WhatsApp Web. Obviously, the person to whom we are about to send the message must have an active WhatsApp account.
Through the use of applications (Our advice)
The second and third methods are recommended by Android Police. For this, we can use one of the many applications that we have available in the Google Apps store, but we choose the one we think is the best.
In this case, we will download the Click to chat application [small, no ads] for several reasons. It takes up very little storage space on our Android device (112k only), it is free, has no advertisement, and requires no permissions.
With text selection
To use the last method we just need to enter the phone number in any spatial field of an application or have it already saved from before. We just have to select the phone number and instead of choosing the call, copy or paste the options that always appear, we will select the three points so that more options are displayed. Once done, we must choose the WhatsApp application icon to start the conversation.
Android Police says that this method only works on Google, Android One, and Pixel devices, and more specifically on versions with Android 9 and Android Q. Although my advice is to use the third-party application because it is not for nothing invasive.
In any case, it is not clear why WhatsApp does not allow natively to send messages to people who are not in contact with us or, better yet, why not use a Telegram nickname system, which is much more secure and allows chat with anyone without providing our mobile number.
