This article discusses how to connect with your friends in the Whatnot app.
Friends in the Whatnot app represent people you follow that also follow you. In the mobile app, you can sync your phone contacts and provide you with follow recommendations.
Once you’ve invited your contact to the Whatnot app, you can:
- Allow your friends to receive recommendations to follow you if you’re in their contacts.
- View your friends’ activity status within the app (if they’ve turned their activity status on), including:
- the livestream they’re watching.
- when they’re hosting/co-hosting a livestream.
- See which friends are viewing the same livestream as you.
Note: The friends feature is only accessible from the mobile app.
Syncing Your Contacts
If you want to receive a list of recommended users to follow from your phone’s contact list, you’ll need to turn on contact sync in your Whatnot app settings.
To sync your contacts:
- Open the Whatnot app on your mobile device.
- Tap the profile icon in the bottom menu bar.
- Tap the Menu two-lines icon in the top right corner.
- Under Account, tap Settings.
- Toggle on the following settings:
- Sync contacts: Turn this on to sync your phone contacts with the Whatnot app. You’ll receive a list of recommended Whatnot users to follow, which you can view in the Friends tab of the Activity menu.
-
Suggest account to others: Turn this on if you’d like others to receive recommendations to follow you when they sync their phone contacts.
Viewing and Following Recommended Friends
- Open the Whatnot app on your mobile device.
- Tap the Activity chat bubble icon in the bottom menu bar.
- Select the Friends tab.
- Under the Recommended friends section, review the list of Whatnot users recommended to you from your synced phone contacts.
You can identify the users from your contacts list via the description under each username. - Tap Follow to the right of the desired user.
Once you follow a recommended friend, Following will appear next to their name in the list. Recommended users who follow you back will become your “friend” within the Whatnot app.
Turning Your Activity Status On or Off
If you turn on your activity status, your Whatnot friends can see:
- The livestream you’re watching.
- When you’re hosting/co-hosting a livestream.
- When you’re in the same livestream as them.
Mobile
- Open the Whatnot app on your mobile device.
- Tap the profile icon in the bottom menu bar.
- Tap the Menu two-lines icon in the top right corner.
- Under Account, tap Settings.
- Toggle Activity status on or off.
Web
- Go to whatnot.com on your web browser.
- Tap the profile icon in the top right-hand corner, then select Settings.
- Scroll down and toggle Activity status on or off.
Viewing Your Friends Activity on Whatnot
For friends that have turned on their activity status in the Whatnot app, you can see:
- The livestream they’re watching.
- When they’re hosting/co-hosting a livestream.
- Friends watching the same livestream as you.
To see your friend's activity:
- Open the Whatnot app on your mobile device.
- Tap the Activity chat bubble icon in the bottom menu bar.
- Select the Friends tab.
Friends currently active in the app will appear under Online. The list will include their current activity within the app (if they’re viewing a livestream or hosting/co-hosting their own show).
Next to each friend’s activity, you can choose one of the following options:
- Join: Tap the Join button next to any friend currently in a livestream. This includes friends who are currently live or simply visiting someone’s livestream.
- Message: Tap the Message button to direct message that friend within the app. Note: This button will be disabled for friends who don’t allow direct messages.
Viewing Friends in a Livestream
If you want to see which friends are viewing the same livestream as you, you can do so in one of two ways:
- Tap the banner that appears at the top of your screen informing you which friends are watching that livestream.
- Tap the viewer count in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
Friends will appear under the Friends in live section.
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