For years, WhatsApp has allowed you to mute specific contacts or entire groups, but it wasn’t until 2020 that it became possible to mute notifications forever. The feature is one of the most important parts of the messenger, and over the past year it has dovetailed perfectly with the app’s new message archiving.
What happens when I mute someone on WhatsApp?
When muting contacts or groups, conversations are not moved to any other area of the app — this happens only when they are archived. The muted chat will continue on the main screen of the program and, if new messages are received, it will return to the top, but without making the cell phone beep.
Currently, you can mute chats for eight hours, a week or forever, and on mobile, you can still decide whether incoming messages will appear in notifications or not. In any case, the smartphone will no longer ring or vibrate, regardless of the chosen sound profile.
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If the silence of a profile or group is no longer necessary, reactivating notifications is done following the same steps: hold the desired chat, tap the speaker icon at the top and disable the feature.
When to silence someone?
You know that group that you don’t even participate so much and that is busy, or that sick contact who sends you repeated messages during class, work or while you drive? It is not always possible to take more drastic measures (such as blocking or leaving the conversation) without generating unnecessary discomfort, hence the option to silence.
By doing this, neither the group nor the person will know that you have muted them, so the friendship can be maintained without turmoil or unnecessary discussions. ” and the “Last seen” (if enabled). So the tool’s constraints are nowhere near what blocking provides.
When Silence Isn’t Enough
When muting someone, the conversation still appears on the app’s home screen. If that bothers you, it’s good to think of an alternative, such as archiving conversations. By activating it, the option not only disables notifications for the group or contact in question, but also places them in a separate area, in the “Archived conversations” section.
However, if that doesn’t work, consider blocking the contact or leaving the group. By doing this, however, the other side of the conversation will soon notice the movement: when blocking someone, the owner of that profile can no longer see your activity in the app, message, status, profile picture and will not even be able to send you messages in the app ; leaving the group likewise stops you from receiving messages until you are added again.
