Understanding politeness in human interactions is essential. Research on politeness has indicated that its interpretation can vary across cultures. With changes in means of communication, recent studies have shifted their focus to the analysis of politeness in online settings such as WhatsApp. Following this trend, this study examines how politeness is navigated in Persian WhatsApp messages exchanged among applied linguistics discourse community members. To this end, interactive conversations were collected from a WhatsApp group created for PhD interview coordination purposes, comprising members with varying degrees of power. Additionally, the degree of politeness of the messages was evaluated through a questionnaire developed specifically for the current study. The analysis of exchanges led to three major findings: (1) the request mitigated in Persian followed a relatively different structure compared to English, (2) power dynamics was reflected in the politeness strategies and markers in the exchanged messages, and (3) the impact of participants’ exposure to English politeness norms on the nature of their WhatsApp communication was marginal. Furthermore, the analysis of perceptions of the faculty members indicated that different factors, such as the length of the messages, the directness of head act strategies, and the appropriate use of lexical items as well as politeness markers, influenced the degree of politeness perceived by the faculty members. The findings of this study have implications for policymakers, materials developers, and researchers.