WhatsApp formatting symbols: the complete list
WhatsApp has no font menu. You style text by typing symbols around it, and the app replaces them with formatting when the message is displayed. The WhatsApp Help Center article "How to format your messages" lists eight styles. We last checked it on 10 October 2026.
- Bold: an asterisk on both sides, *text*
- Italic: an underscore on both sides, _text_
- Strikethrough: a tilde on both sides, ~text~
- Monospace: three backticks on both sides, ```text```
- Inline code: one backtick on both sides, `text`
- Quote: an angle bracket and a space at the start of the line, > text
- Bulleted list: an asterisk or hyphen and a space before each line, * text or - text
- Numbered list: a number, a period and a space before each line, 1. text
Why formatting sometimes doesn't work
Most failures come from spacing. The symbols must touch the words they wrap: *bold* works, but * bold * is shown with the asterisks. The editor keeps any spaces you selected outside the markers, so a sloppy selection still gives a valid result.
A marker that touches a letter or digit on its outer side isn't treated as formatting either. That is why snake_case_name and 2*3*4 stay as typed. Inline styles also stop at a line break, so if you select several lines, the tool wraps each line separately instead of wrapping the whole block once.
Nothing inside monospace or inline code is formatted, which makes those styles useful for showing symbols literally. The Help Center also says the newer styles (lists, quotes and inline code) are only available on Web and Mac desktop, and that formatting can't be switched off. Recipients on older app versions may see the raw symbols.
Combining styles and formatting Arabic text
You can nest styles by stacking the markers: *_bold italic_* or ~*bold strikethrough*~. Open them in one order and close them in the reverse order. Keep nesting light, because every symbol counts toward the message length.
Formatting works the same way in Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu. Put the markers around the Arabic word, for example *عرض خاص*. WhatsApp sets the message direction from its first strong character, so a message that starts with an Arabic word is laid out right-to-left. The preview follows the same rule, so you can see where markers fall in mixed Arabic and English text.
Formatting in WhatsApp Business API templates
Template bodies use the same markup as normal chats. Meta's own authentication template body comes back from the API as "*{{1}}* is your verification code.", so wrapping a variable in asterisks bolds whatever value you send. Header text accepts emoji but not markdown, so keep styling in the body.
According to Meta's Cloud API docs, a text message body can be up to 4,096 characters and a template body up to 1,024. Formatting symbols count toward both limits. Put line breaks in the approved template text, because parameter values sent at runtime can't contain newlines, tabs or more than four consecutive spaces (error 132018). When you build JSON by hand, write a line break as \n. The "Copy as JSON string" button does this for you.
- Text message body: up to 4,096 characters
- Template body: up to 1,024 characters, markdown supported
- Template header: text and emoji, no markdown
- Variables: *{{1}}* bolds the value you send
- Parameter values: no \n, no tabs, no more than 4 spaces in a row
Fancy fonts, and SMS fallback
Some sites offer "WhatsApp fonts" made of Unicode look-alike letters such as 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝. These are separate mathematical characters, not formatting. Screen readers spell them out oddly or skip them, search can't find them, and they don't exist for Arabic script. Use WhatsApp's own markup for business messages.
If a WhatsApp message fails and you resend it by SMS, the symbols would appear as raw asterisks and underscores. The plain-text copy removes them and counts SMS segments: 160 characters for one GSM-7 message (153 per part when split) and 70 for Unicode text such as Arabic (67 per part).