WhatsApp Formatting Cheat Sheet: Bold, Italics, Lists, Code and What Templates Allow

WhatsApp has no formatting toolbar on mobile. You type the marks yourself, and they only work when the mark touches the text.

The complete formatting table#

Marks combine. *_urgent_* renders bold italic. ~*old price*~ renders bold and struck through.

The rule that breaks most formatting#

The mark must sit directly against the text with no space in between.

• *Confirmed* → Confirmed
• * Confirmed * → literal asterisks, no bold
• *Confirmed * → literal asterisks, no bold

The same applies to punctuation: *Confirmed.* works, and the full stop is included in the bold. If you want the punctuation outside the styling, close the mark first: *Confirmed*.

Desktop shortcuts#

On WhatsApp Web and the desktop app you can select text and use the keyboard instead of typing marks:

• Bold — Ctrl/Cmd + B
• Italic — Ctrl/Cmd + I
• Strikethrough — Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + X
• Monospace — Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + M

There is also a right-click formatting menu on desktop, which is the fastest way to format a block you have already written.

Lists, quotes and code blocks#

Lists and quotes need to start the line. A hyphen in the middle of a sentence stays a hyphen.

Order update:
- Packed
- Handed to courier
- Out for delivery

> Tracking updates arrive here automatically.

Monospace is the one worth building a habit around. Reference numbers, coupon codes, IDs and short tokens are much easier for a customer to copy accurately when they are visually separated from the sentence around them.

Formatting inside business message templates#

Templates sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform use the same marks, with three practical constraints worth designing around:

1. Body only. Headers, footers and button labels render as plain text. Formatting marks placed there are either shown literally or flagged during review.
2. Do not format a variable. Wrapping a placeholder in marks means the formatting depends on whatever value gets injected. If the value contains an asterisk or underscore, the rendering breaks in ways you will not see until a real send.
3. Keep it sparse. A template where half the sentence is bold reads as a promotion even when it is a utility message, and reviewers judge intent from how the message reads.

A good pattern for a utility template body:

Hi {{1}}, your appointment is confirmed.

*Date:* {{2}}
*Time:* {{3}}
*Reference:* ```{{4}}```

Reply RESCHEDULE if the time no longer works.

Bold labels, plain values, monospace only on the reference the customer will read out or paste somewhere.

Where formatting silently disappears#

• Group and contact names — plain text only.
• Status updates — formatting applies to the text, but a text status with heavy formatting is often harder to read on a coloured background than plain text.
• Copied text — pasting formatted WhatsApp text into another app carries the raw marks, not the styling. Customers pasting a reference number out of a monospace block get the number clean, which is exactly why monospace is a good choice for it.
• Automated messages built by string concatenation — if your code joins a customer name that itself contains an underscore, you can accidentally open an italic block that runs to the end of the message. Escape or strip formatting characters from injected values.

A short style guide worth adopting#

If several people send messages from the same number, agree on this much and the thread stays readable:

• Bold for labels and status words only, never whole sentences.
• Monospace for anything the customer must copy exactly.
• Strikethrough only for a price that is genuinely being replaced.
• No italics in transactional messages — it reads as emphasis where none is intended.
• One formatted element per line, maximum.

Formatting is the cheapest readability win in a WhatsApp thread, and the only one that costs nothing to apply. If several agents answer from the same number, a shared inbox keeps that style consistent across everyone who replies — see how a WhatsApp team inbox works.

Next: templates that get approved, with copy-paste examples, and how to build a wa.me link with a pre-filled message.