Text Formatting in Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Reddit

You type **bold** and it works in Discord. You paste the same message into Slack and the asterisks show up literally. Then WhatsApp turns half of it italic. Every chat app has its own take on Markdown, and the differences are just big enough to be annoying.

This guide puts them side by side.

Quick comparison

Style	Discord	Slack	WhatsApp	Telegram	Reddit
Bold	**text**	*text*	*text*	**text**	**text**
Italic	*text*	_text_	_text_	__text__	*text*
Strikethrough	~~text~~	~text~	~text~	~~text~~	~~text~~
Underline	__text__	—	—	—	—
Inline code	`code`	`code`	`code`	`code`	`code`
Spoiler	||text||	—	—	||text||	>!text!<
Quote	> text	> text	> text	> text	> text
Link text	[text](url)	<url|text>*	—	[text](url)	[text](url)
Headings	#, ##, ###	—	—	—	# to ######
Tables	—	—	—	—	✅

* In Slack’s API and webhooks. In the app itself, select text and press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + U.

The two big traps

Single versus double asterisks. Discord, Telegram, and Reddit use **double** for bold. Slack and WhatsApp use *single*. In Discord, single asterisks mean italic, so a Slack-formatted message pasted into Discord comes out italic instead of bold — and the reverse shows stray asterisks.

Double underscores. In Discord, __text__ is underline. In Telegram it is italic. In standard Markdown and Reddit it is bold. Same characters, three different results.

App by app

Discord

Discord has the richest formatting of the chat apps: three heading sizes, underline, spoilers, subtext (-# small print), masked links, timestamps that show in each reader’s time zone, and colored text via ANSI code blocks. It has no tables or images. Try the Discord editor, the ANSI color generator, and the embed builder for rich bot messages.

Slack

Slack’s syntax is called mrkdwn. Markers must touch the text and sit at word boundaries: *bold* works, * bold * does not. There are no headings; use a bold line instead. Preview messages in the Slack formatting editor, or convert existing Markdown with Markdown to Slack.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp follows the same single-marker rules as Slack, plus triple backticks for monospace. Recent versions also support - lists, 1. numbered lists, and > quotes. There is no underline and no link text. The WhatsApp formatting editor previews messages in a chat bubble.

Telegram

Telegram’s apps convert double markers as you send: **bold**, __italic__, ~~strike~~, and ||spoilers||. Links with custom text work with standard [text](url) syntax. Check messages in the Telegram formatting editor.

Reddit

Reddit is the closest to standard Markdown: headings, tables, nested lists, and code blocks all work. It adds ^superscript and >!spoilers!<. Remember that a single line break is ignored; leave a blank line between paragraphs. Draft posts in the Reddit Markdown editor.

Fancy fonts that work everywhere

Where an app has no formatting at all — usernames, bios, channel names — you can still use Unicode “fonts” such as 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝, 𝓈𝒸𝓇𝒾𝓅𝓉, or ꜱᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘꜱ. They are regular characters, so they paste anywhere. Generate them with the font generator, and use them sparingly: screen readers often read them poorly.