How to start a WhatsApp chat without, ugh, creating a new contact

As more and more businesses and services add official WhatsApp accounts, it can be a pain when they clutter up your smartphone's contact list. There's a simpler way to chat in such cases. — Photo: Martin Gerten/dpa

BERLIN: Your plumber, hairdresser and kid's headmaster don't all need to be in your list of contacts on your phone. And yet for many, this is what ends up happening if you want to reach them on WhatsApp.

Thanks to WhatsApp's so-called "click to chat" function, you don't have to save a new contact for every new chat.