WhatsApp, how to send messages to unregistered contacts

WhatsApp also allows you to send messages to strangers not registered in your smartphone address book. Here's how to do it

One of the great limitations of WhatsApp is the requirement that you can only send messages to people registered in your address book. If by chance we need to send a picture or video to a new colleague at work or a person we met at school or university, it is necessary to first register his number in the phone's address book, even if we do not want to in order not to waste time. A rather annoying limitation, but that can be overcome with a simple trick.

Few are aware of it, but you can contact people on WhatsApp even without registering their phone number in the address book. Just use the browser present on your smartphone or PC and enter a particular URL. The secret, in fact, is all in writing the address correctly in the browser's search bar. Logically, this is a completely legal system developed directly by WhatsApp. We will not propose in this guide the installation of third-party apps that may require permissions to access sensitive parts of the smartphone.

How to send messages to strangers on WhatsApp

The procedure we will explain is valid for any type of device: computer, tablet and smartphone. And also for any operating system, so there is no difference between iOS and Android.

Few people know this, but each number is associated with a WhatsApp link that can be used to get in touch directly with a user. How do you create this link? Very simple. You start with a generic link to which you add the phone number including the country code.

The generic link is https://wa.me/. After the slash you have to add the phone number with the area code. If for example the phone number is 3904040 (totally invented number), the url to insert in the browser is https://wa.me/39390404040. Pressing enter will open a page with the WhatsApp API and a text on the screen that reads "Messaging "phone number" on WhatsApp". Pressing messaging will open the chat on the WhatsApp app and you can send a message without having to register your phone number.

As mentioned, the procedure works on any device. On PC, it is advisable to install the WhatsApp Desktop app to speed up the procedure.