It’s probably accurate to assume anyone with access to a smartphone will have WhatsApp installed on their device. After all, it’s the most popular messaging application in the country, with Statista reporting that a whopping 98.7% of Malaysians use it.

It is quite understandable why this is the case: WhatsApp is simple to use and highly accessible. Plus, most importantly for Malaysians, it’s free!

Almost every family has its own WhatsApp chat group, which, theoretically, is supposed to make communication easier between relatives. However, certain colourful personalities seem to be mainstays in these groups, often derailing the conversation altogether.

Here are just a handful of people whom you might recognise from your own familial chat experience. Are you one of them yourself?

1. The inappropriate uncle

You’ve just woken up and are ready for a new day when you receive a notification on your phone. It’s a message on your WhatsApp family chat group.

Curious, you check it out and find yourself looking at an image that immediately makes you shut the app altogether.

The culprit behind this is the inappropriate uncle (or auntie) who doesn’t understand that some messages should be left unforwarded.

Perhaps they think a photo of the bloody aftermath of a traffic accident is interesting to gape at. But for those who would like to keep their meals in their stomachs, these sorts of graphic posts are never welcome.

Also annoying: the silent lurkers or one-liner responders; politically incorrect jokers; passive-aggressives; and unverified-news mongers. Which leads to:

2. The fake newscaster

In a world where information is at everyone’s fingertips, you’d think people would be more willing to fact-check any dubious information they receive.

But for this particular relative, all news items they receive must be forwarded, even if they come from the most questionable of sources.

From “Bigfoot found living on the moon” to “Putin is three raccoons in a trench coat”, there seems no limit to what these folks are willing to share. It gets dangerous when harmless satire turns into downright disinformation.

Calling this relative out either results in them getting offended at your audacity, or apologising before forwarding a message on how rubbing toads on your legs cures blindness.

3. The religious spammer

There’s nothing wrong with having faith in a divine power, but it gets a bit much when it is shouted from the rooftops. Not literally shouted, of course, since this is all online – but it’s common to receive religious sermons in family group chats.

Sometimes these are delivered daily without fail, as if hell awaits the sender for failing to do so. For other members of the group, this behaviour might seem quirky at first, but it’s a few taps and clicks away from zealotry.

It certainly doesn’t help that these texts are often the length of a thesis, so you’ll have to scroll down to move past them.

To complicate the situation, there aren’t many ways to tell these preachers to tone it down without being seemingly disrespectful of their beliefs, or the fact that they’re related to you.

4. The Instagrammer

Every social media platform has its own particular niche; you go to YouTube for videos and LinkedIn for job searching, for example.

Some folks, though, think that all social media apps are created equal, and proceed to act as such by treating WhatsApp like their personal photo-sharing account.

These relatives seem to have very eventful lives and are more than eager to share what’s been going on. In practice, this is tolerable, especially if it’s a special occasion like a graduation, a birthday, or a promotion.

But when they are sharing pictures of their mundane breakfasts every morning, you need to start hinting that Instagram exists for a reason.

5. The emoji addict

Emojis are fun little icons that folks occasionally add to their messages to add a little cheer or humour. Sometimes, they can be used to outright replace words, with the “thumbs up” being a popular substitute for “OK” or an acknowledgement.

However, some people, especially older folks, seem to go overboard, relishing the ability to include smileys in all their texts. Moderation is thrown out of the window as a single sentence is followed by strings of emojis, some of which don’t even fit the context of the conversation!

As it turns out, no one likes people reacting to a post about a loved one passing away with crying emojis, especially the “tears of joy” one!