How to bold text in WhatsApp, on Android, iPhone and Web

To bold text in WhatsApp, put an asterisk on each side of it with no spaces inside the pair: *text* arrives in bold. The asterisks disappear when the message sends. On a phone you can skip typing them: select the words and choose Bold from the menu that appears.

Below: the steps on Android, iPhone and WhatsApp Web, how to bold part of a word or a whole paragraph, how to combine bold with italics, how to send an asterisk without it turning anything bold, and the three reasons it usually fails. Menus are as of October 2026.

The code: *text*

WhatsApp reads the characters you type and formats what sits between them. For bold, the character is the asterisk:

The pair has to hug the text. That single rule explains most of the cases where bold does nothing, and it is the one thing to check first.

How to bold text in WhatsApp on Android

1. 1Type the message in the text field, but do not send it.
2. 2Tap and hold a word you want in bold, then drag the selection handles to cover the rest of it.
3. 3Tap More, the three vertical dots, in the menu above the selection.
4. 4Choose Bold. WhatsApp inserts the asterisks for you.

The same menu offers Italic, Strikethrough and Monospace. Typing *text* yourself gets the identical result, and is quicker once it is in your fingers.

How to bold text in WhatsApp on iPhone

1. 1Type the message in the text field.
2. 2Double tap a word to select it, and drag the handles to cover everything you want in bold.
3. 3Tap Format in the menu above the selection. On some versions it is behind the arrow at the end of the menu.
4. 4Choose Bold.

How to bold text on WhatsApp Web and desktop

1. 1Type the message in the message box.
2. 2Double click the text you have typed to select it.
3. 3Choose Bold from the menu that appears.

Typing the asterisks works here too. One difference worth knowing: the Web and Mac desktop menu offers Bold, Italic, Strikethrough and Inline code, where the phone menus offer Monospace in place of Inline code. Either way, the message arrives formatted on every app, because what travels is the asterisk itself.

Can you bold part of a word, or a whole paragraph?

Part of a word, yes: *re*action puts only the first two letters in bold, because WhatsApp honours a pair that opens and closes cleanly. What it will not do is treat a mark buried inside a word as an opening, which is why a file name like report_final_v2 stays as typed.

A whole paragraph is less reliable. A single pair of asterisks spread across several lines sometimes renders and sometimes does not, so for anything longer than a sentence give each line its own pair. One more thing to watch: an asterisk at the very start of a line is read as a bullet, not as the opening of a bold run, so a line that begins *Important* may come out as a bullet point.

Bold and italic together, and bold with underline

Nest the marks and both apply: *_text_* comes out bold and italic, and ~*text*~ comes out struck through and bold. The order of the pairs does not matter.

Underline is the one people look for and it does not exist. WhatsApp offers bold, italic, strikethrough, monospace and inline code, and no underline on any app. If the point is emphasis, bold is the substitute; if the point is marking something as removed, strikethrough is.

How do I send an asterisk without bolding anything?

Wrap it in three backticks. Monospace shows its contents exactly as typed, so marks inside it are left alone. A lone asterisk with spaces around it is also safe, because the pair never closes.

There is no setting to switch formatting off. WhatsApp's help centre says so directly, so the monospace trick is the only way to send a mark as a mark.

Why is bold not working in my WhatsApp?

• There is a space inside the asterisks, so the pair never binds to the text.
• Only one asterisk was typed, so nothing closes the run.
• The text is inside three backticks, where nothing is interpreted.
• The run spans several lines; give each line its own pair.
• The line starts with the asterisk, so WhatsApp read it as a bullet.
• The text was pasted from a word processor, which sends styling WhatsApp ignores rather than the marks it reads.

To see the result before sending, our WhatsApp text formatter previews the message and copies the marked-up text to your clipboard. WhatsApp text formatting covers every other code: italics, lists, quotes and inline code.

Using bold in messages you send often

Bold works best as a signpost, on the one line someone will scroll back to find: a price, a cut-off time, an address, an order number. A message where half the text is bold reads as louder, not clearer.

If you send the same wording repeatedly, keep the marks in the saved version so you are not retyping them. WhatsApp Business quick replies stores the text with its formatting, and a group description or welcome message is worth a bold first line for the same reason.