10 useful features of VKontakte that you might not know about

Sending a message to yourself

Sending a message to yourself is the easiest way to make a quick note or reminder to refer back to later. On the VKontakte social network, all you need to do is type your first and last name in the list of chats in the “Messages” section and select the suggested contact.

In a similar way, by the way, using messages to yourself, you can conveniently upload various files and documents to the Network so that they can be accessed from any device with VKontakte.

VK Notes

Olshin also wrote an extension that shows a large and comprehensively informative tooltip instead of the usual one with a meager set of information about the user. VK Notes also has the function of adding your own “notes”. You can mark that such and such a user is, for example, an asshole and a troll, and never fall for his provocations again.

Reading community posts without subscribing

If you want to hide the information that you are subscribed to a certain community, it is not at all necessary to change your privacy settings. You can read posts from the community you want even after unsubscribing from it.

To do this, while you are subscribed to the page you need, open the “News” section. On the top right under your avatar, click on the “+” icon and select “Add tab”. A list of all your contacts and groups will open in front of you, where you need to select the required page. All that remains is to name the tab and save it.

After this, even if you unsubscribe, new posts in this community will always be at hand in the “News” section on the tab you created.

Message tricks

Dialogue with yourself - it would seem, why might this be necessary? But what could be a better notebook than your favorite VKontakte? In fact, I once had a text file on my computer where I wrote down all the necessary information, including secret ones, but ultimately forgot the password for it. Everything is lost. And if it weren’t for the password, you could have lost it, but here everything is at hand.

Yes, you can say that there are all sorts of planners like Evernote, but you must admit that using a third-party service is not always convenient. So how can you take advantage of this opportunity?

Everything was simple before, but now you have to work a little harder.

● Log in to VK and go to your profile page. Your task is to copy the numbers that come after the id. Copied? Go ahead!

● Go to the “Messages” tab. Here you will find your correspondence with other users. Open any dialogue. Anyone, no matter what. Have you opened it?

● Now look at the page address. There will be numbers with the user ID, you will have to substitute yours.

● That's it, you can now send messages to yourself.

I note that this method is convenient not only because of the possibility of text correspondence, but also because you can save photos, videos in this way and generally create a huge file storage. Of course, there are risks, since an account ban can always happen, as a result of which you will lose absolutely everything you have acquired. But still, I am considering this option as a notebook, some kind of personal and protected place on the Internet!

Search for e-books and abstracts

Few people know that the social network VKontakte can be used to search for e-books. Just go to the “Documents” section and type the name of the work you are interested in in the search bar. Suitable options will appear below.

To narrow the search and avoid the appearance of pictures and gifs in the search results, after the name, you can specify the format you are interested in, separated by a space: DOC, PDF, EPUB, and so on. This way you can search not only for e-books, but also for abstracts, reports, coursework, sample documents, and in general anything that can be stored in text format.

Multimedia (photos, videos, etc.)

Photos

Users can upload photos to the site (up to 50 at a time). The maximum image size is 1280 pixels. Photos can be sorted by albums, and each album can have its own privacy settings (allowed access). Pictures can [https://www.ferra.ru/ru/techlife/news/2012/10/11/vk-instagram/ be edited using various filters, parameters and effects, tag people in them, link them to a place on the map ( button “Specify location”), make it a profile photo, etc.].

Audio

You can upload audio files in MP3 format up to 200 MB in size to the site, search for audio recordings uploaded to the site, add them to your playlists (from the English playlist - a playlist of audio files, a selection of songs), broadcast audio to your pages and community pages, share audio recordings with friends (send to them on the wall or in private messages).

Video

Users can upload video files in various formats up to 2 GB in size to the site, store and view them. In April 2015, the video service was updated. Now this is a video catalog in which videos are sorted by topic: “my videos” (videos selected by the user), series, TV shows, etc. - on one page.

Documentation

On the site you can store documents in various formats (pdf, doc, ppt, png, gif, jpg, etc.) up to 2 MB in size and limit access to downloaded documents in the privacy settings (make available to everyone, to some friends, etc. .). By default, the document is not visible to anyone except the “owner”. Sorting is available for documents. This is done by adding “tags” (for example, “diploma”, “cats”, “poems”), which makes searching easier. Saved documents can be sent to other users by attaching them to a message (similar to a photograph, audio or video recording).

Applications

Applications with different capabilities for games, radio, services, etc. are available on the site. To work with the application, it must be installed on the user's page. In July 2015, VKontakte launched Instagram. The application is available to users of the iOS and Android operating systems (systems for smartphones, tablet computers, e-readers, etc.). Other features (Document preview, link shortening, virtual storefront creation)

Document preview

If you add links to other sites (for example, news sites) to messages (on the user’s wall or in personal correspondence), then in a pop-up window you can see the text, images and other content of the page to which the link leads.

Link Shortening

A service that allows you to turn a long link into a simplified one. Such links are more convenient to use in wall posts and personal messages.

Creation of virtual storefronts

On September 10, 2015, for those who are engaged in retail trade using VKontakte (using photo albums, etc.), the site became able to create virtual storefronts with a product catalog within communities.

Quickly send audio recordings

To share a track you like with someone, you don’t have to go to “Messages”, look for the desired contact and attach an audio recording to the message. You can do this directly from the player in the top bar. You just need to open the playlist and hover over the ellipsis on the right side of the desired track, then click “Share”. All you have to do is choose who you want to send the audio to.

If you need to quickly send several songs at once, you first need to go to the message and select entries there while holding down the Ctrl key on Windows or Command on Mac. This will allow you to select a group of compositions at once and attach them all at once.

Organizing feedback for clients

By communicating with users on VKontakte, an entrepreneur (representative of an organization) creates an official channel for correspondence with clients in a comfortable environment for them. Unlike other methods of user support (for example, when using a hotline), an entrepreneur or representative of an organization can quickly find out information about a client by going to his profile.

VKontakte saves all messages, which allows you to view the history of correspondence and obtain the necessary data at any time. If several managers in a brand group (organization) communicate with clients, the social network allows you to find out which employee communicated with the user. VKontakte automatically warns the person who contacts the support service about the average response time. Response time is determined based on data from the last three days. Leaders and account managers can track this metric in the Community Posts tab in the top right corner.

Sending gifts to yourself

It is quite possible to increase the number of gifts received without any help. To do this, you will need a mobile version of the VKontakte website. You can go to it directly in the browser on your PC by simply adding m. before vk to the address of the desktop version. In the next tab, open the regular version of your page and in its settings, from the address column, copy your original numeric page number - id.

On mobile, go to gifts and select any user as a recipient. In the gift selection window in the browser's address bar, replace the recipient's number with yours, copied earlier. After pressing Enter, you should remain on the gift selection page, but for another recipient - for yourself.

Privacy settings

How about hiding from everyone and using VK invisibly. Is it possible? Both theoretically and practically not, because in any case, information about your real location is stored on VK servers, but still, something can really be done to minimize the chances of your interlocutors finding out your personal data.

● Go to your page settings;

● Go to “Who sees the basic information of my page”;

● Select “Only Me” or “Everyone Except...”

The same can be repeated with items that determine who sees the photos in which you were tagged, who can view the list of photos you have saved, you can hide friends, and so on.

I repeat once again, you will not be able to hide from any special services or the administration of the social network itself, neither on a PC, nor on an iPhone, nor on an Android, but from annoying fans, competitors or any other persons - very much so.

Getting votes for free

Gifts and stickers on the social network are purchased using votes, which, in turn, can be purchased for real money. However, there is a way to get them without real investments. To do this, in your page settings you need to go to the “Payments and Transfers” section and click “Top up balance”. In the window that opens, select “Special Offers”.

The offers page always displays various tasks from advertisers, completing which you will receive a certain number of votes. This mainly involves installing applications, joining groups and small tests.

Kate Mobile

• Compatibility : Android 4.0 and above.

Kate Mobile with transparent theme

Kate Mobile is one of the most popular and actively developed third-party clients for VKontakte today. The application has a specific minimalistic interface in the form of horizontal section tabs, wide customization of appearance and a number of convenient additional features. Currently, the number of subscribers in the official Kate Mobile group on VKontakte is 6.5 million people, and the number of installations of the application in the Google Play store exceeds 10 million.

Kate Mobile is used mainly because of its speed, especially on budget devices, and its interface design to suit absolutely every taste (themes, color settings, background image). As a pleasant plus, there is a minimum of advertising and useful options. For example, you can delete all messages from the wall with one click, hide news by keywords, and view messages without a read mark.

Advantages of Kate Mobile :

• interface customization and transparent theme;
• setting an image to the background of chats and the entire application;
• customizable font size;
• news filter and hiding by keywords;
• quick clearing of posts from the wall;
• installation on an external SD card;
• partial invisible mode (does not work when sending messages and publishing posts);
• disabling image loading to reduce traffic;
• setting default video playback quality;
• minimal amount of advertising;
• setting a PIN code or fingerprint to launch the application.

You may not like it:

• clumsy interface;
• non-standard navigation;
• repeating elements;
• you cannot send money via VK Pay;
• open-ended surveys;
• The VKontakte article editor is not supported;
• The menu is not displayed in communities;
• Song covers are not displayed in the player;
• incorrect updating of the news feed when the application is launched;
• Calls are not supported.

Beautiful links to pages and groups

In messages, comments and any posts, links to community and user pages can be beautifully “hidden” in words. A simple @ icon is used for this. In the case of a link to a page, after it you need to indicate the id and then the word without a space in brackets, which will be clickable. An example and result are in the screenshot above.

In the same way, you can give links to groups, but if instead of a short identifier you use an original numeric number, then you must add the word club in front of it. In the case of original user ids, it is important to also add the id. For example: @club****(Link text), @id****(Link text). You can even put an emoticon instead of the link text.

SOVA V RE

• Compatibility : Android 5.0 and above.

Perhaps the most interesting alternative client for VKontakte is SOVA V RE. This is the reincarnation of the old modification VK Sova 5 and the spiritual successor to VK Sova X. It has almost everything that VKontakte fans need, starting from the new design of version 6.1 with a single tabbar and ending with a large number of settings, cut out advertising and a global “unreader” of messages. One developer is working on SOVA V RE, and the project’s Telegram channel has almost 20 thousand subscribers.

SOVA V RE stands out from other modifications for one reason - the client can literally be rebuilt to suit you thanks to the SuperApp Menu. Disable advertising? Too easy! Disable the widget with information about coronavirus, VK Pay wallet, display of promotional services, mini-applications, games, weather, sports news, exchange rates. On top of that, the tabbar is editable in SOVA V RE - change the tabs as you wish. Isn't it perfect?

Advantages of SOVA V RE:

• new VKontakte interface with customization;
• editing elements in the tabbar;
• customizable font size;
• caching and downloading music;
• listening to music in the background;
• partial invisibility mode (does not work when sending messages and publishing entries) and “unreader” messages;
• reading deleted messages;
• setting an image to the background of chats;
• support for Telegram stickers (you need to copy the link to the set of stickers in Telegram and paste it in the SOVA V RE settings);
• disabling advertising and recommended entries;
• disabling widgets in the “Browse” tab.

You may not like it:

• ?

Crossed out words and empty messages

VKontakte does not allow you to format the message text by changing its size or font, but you can use strikethrough characters. To do this, before each letter in the word you need to insert the following set of characters: ̶.

Using another set, you can send a completely empty message: . The same code will be suitable when filling out information about yourself if you want to leave some of the lines empty.

Removing advertisements

We all don't like advertising, don't we? But if something non-targeted is advertised (for example, an iOS update), we usually don’t pay attention to it. And sometimes it happens to be something catchy.

For example, you do marketing, belong to some groups, and constantly communicate with your colleagues. And VK, knowing this, offers you advertisements for various kinds of courses.

It’s not interesting, you’re already a pro, you don’t need them.

In this case, you can change the subject of advertising and its focus. To do this, go to your profile settings and select another language, for example, Soviet, or you can English.

We don’t know exactly what parameters VK uses to determine the user’s location and interests, but seeing the English language will change the topic of advertising.

It won’t disappear, but it will no longer annoy you, since it will simply be of no use to you.

Deleting and editing sent messages

Perhaps someone missed the recent introduction of functions for deleting or editing already sent messages. You can correct the text of the message using the pencil icon, which appears to the right of the text when you hover over the message. After the change, a “(ed.)” mark will appear, signaling to other participants in the correspondence that changes have been made.

You can delete a message that has already been sent by clicking on the trash can icon that appears at the top of the chat when you highlight a message.

Important: You can edit and delete within 24 hours after sending. If you do this later, the changes will only appear on your computer, but not on your interlocutors.

VTosters

• Compatibility : Android 5.0 and above.

VTosters is a project for a quickly updated modification of the VKontakte application, authored by a small team of enthusiasts. Like other analogues, the client combines standard VKontakte capabilities and various additional settings. In addition to the already familiar functions of disabling ads and managing activity, VTosters also offers an AMOLED theme with a black background throughout the application, support for Telegram stickers and a built-in proxy from Xtrafrancyz. News about the work of VTosters is available in the Telegram channel, 32 thousand users are subscribed to it.

VTosters is good because the client is simply always up-to-date and there is nothing superfluous in it. The same good old “VKontakte” with a modern design, only slightly “pumped up”. Hacked music, disabling advertising in the main sections, invisible mode and more - the developers are implementing really important things that you would expect to see in a well-modified VKontakte application.

Advantages of VTosters :

• new VKontakte interface with customization;
• AMOLED interface mode;
• customizable font size;
• listening to music in the background;
• partial invisibility mode (does not work when sending messages and publishing entries) and “unreader” messages;
• built-in proxy from Xtrafrancyz;
• setting an image to the background of chats;
• support for Telegram stickers (via the TG Bot API key, it can be obtained using the @BotFather bot);
• disabling the display of stories;
• disabling advertising and recommended posts.

You may not like it:

• there is no cache for music;
• you cannot edit elements in the tabbar;
• outdated design of the “Overview” tab without the ability to customize widgets;
• installing Telegram stickers through a bot.

useful links

• The effect of advertising on the VKontakte website

• Advertising on social networks

• Promotion in social media

• Optimizm.ru has received the status of an authorized partner of the VKontakte network!

• What to allow and what to prohibit users of online communities: 5 tips for marketers

• Successful website promotion on social networks: 4 win-win strategies