WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps with over 2 billion users worldwide. It offers features like text messaging, voice and video calls, document sharing and more. One of the key features of WhatsApp is Groups which allows you to communicate with multiple people at once.
WhatsApp allows you to add up to 256 participants to a single group. But adding each contact manually can be tedious especially if you want to add many people. Thankfully, there is an easy way to add multiple WhatsApp contacts to a group at once using an Excel spreadsheet.
In this detailed guide, you will learn how to create a list of contacts in Excel and import it to WhatsApp to add multiple members to a group in one go.
Benefits of Adding Multiple Contacts at Once
Here are some of the benefits of using this technique to add multiple WhatsApp contacts to a group:
- Saves a lot of time and effort instead of manually adding each contact one by one which can be tedious.
- Allows you to add up to 256 members at one go to any WhatsApp group.
- Great for quickly creating large groups for family, friends, team, organization etc.
- Works for both new and existing groups. You can add multiple new members to a group.
- Easy to create and manage list of contacts in Excel with names and numbers.
Requirements
To add multiple WhatsApp contacts at once, you need the following:
- WhatsApp account and app installed on your phone
- Excel installed on your computer
- Phone numbers of all the contacts you want to add
- Computer and mobile phone connected to the Internet
Steps to Add Multiple WhatsApp Contacts
Here are the detailed step-by-step instructions to add multiple contacts to a WhatsApp group:
1. Create Excel Contact List
Open a new Excel sheet and create a list of all the contacts you want to add along with their phone numbers in separate columns as shown below:
| Name | Phone Number |
|---|---|
| John Doe | 1234567890 |
| Jane Smith | 0987654321 |
Make sure the country code is added in the phone numbers. You can add up to 256 contacts in this list.
2. Format Phone Numbers
The phone numbers must be formatted properly for WhatsApp to recognize them. The numbers should be in international format without any special characters like dashes, braces etc.
To quickly format the phone number column in Excel:
- Select the Phone Number column
- Right click and select Format Cells
- Go to Number tab and select Text
- Click Ok to change the numbers to text format
Now remove any dashes, braces or spaces. The number should be continuous digits like this:
| Name | Phone Number |
|---|---|
| John Doe | 1234567890 |
| Jane Smith | 0987654321 |
3. Save as CSV File
Once your contact list is ready, you need to save it in the CSV format.
- Go to File > Save As in Excel
- Choose CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) as the Save as type
- Click Save to save the Excel sheet as a CSV file
This will create a CSV file containing your contacts which can be imported to WhatsApp.
4. Import CSV to WhatsApp
Now it’s time to import this list into WhatsApp using these steps:
- Open WhatsApp on your phone and go to the group where you want to add members
- Tap on Group Info > Add Participants > Add via Contacts
- Tap on the Import button at the bottom
- Select your saved CSV file containing the contacts
- The app will now read all contacts from the CSV file and show you the list
- Tap on Add to confirm and add all members to the group
All the contacts from the Excel sheet will be added to your WhatsApp group in one go!
Troubleshooting Tips
Here are some troubleshooting tips in case you face any issues while importing contacts:
- Confirm the CSV is properly formatted and the phone numbers are correct.
- The file must be saved in CSV format only else WhatsApp won’t detect it.
- There should be no special characters or extra spaces in the phone numbers.
- Make sure WhatsApp, Excel and contacts have proper internet connection.
- If a contact isn’t added, their number may not be right on WhatsApp.
- The file must be saved and then imported using the right steps mentioned.
Limitations
Here are some limitations to keep in mind when adding multiple WhatsApp contacts:
- You can add up to 256 participants at once to a single WhatsApp group.
- All numbers must be in international format in the Excel CSV file.
- Contacts without WhatsApp or invalid numbers will fail to get added.
- Does not work to add contacts to broadcast lists on WhatsApp.
Conclusion
Adding multiple WhatsApp contacts to a group manually can be tiring. Using this simple Excel technique, you can add up to 256 participants at one go to any WhatsApp group easily.
This saves a lot of time and efforts compared to adding people one by one. You can also manage your contact list better in an Excel sheet.
Just make sure the phone numbers are formatted correctly without any special characters in the CSV file for WhatsApp to detect them properly during import. This handy trick makes managing large WhatsApp groups a breeze.
Now you can instantly create large groups for family, friends, team, office etc. in seconds which wasn’t possible manually. Go ahead and try this tips and tricks to supercharge your WhatsApp group management!