Learn how to hide a group in WhatsApp and manage your chats more efficiently. Follow the simple steps outlined in this article for a clutter-free chat experience.
I have a trick to hide my WhatsApp groups and conversations from which I don’t want to receive constant notifications , or even know when I receive a new message and I have it unread, and all of this without having to carry out a block or leave the group.
The easy thing would be to disable notifications for the group or individual chat with someone, but the reality is quite different. When I log into WhatsApp, it shows me that I have a new message available in the “chats” tab of the app, so this doesn’t work for me.
I don’t want to be constantly alerted to new WhatsApp messages from any conversation, whatever it may be, and while trying out different features of the app I’ve come across a feature that has been available for a while and which I hadn’t paid attention to until now. It’s a WhatsApp trick that you should try.
Restricted chats or blocked chats
Restricted or blocked chats are a new feature that has been present in WhatsApp for some time, however, it arrived and I at least have not paid too much attention to it because it is not something I use in my day to day life. I have left the function aside until today.
Archiving chats in WhatsApp doesn’t work for me , even if I have them there and silence the notifications for those chats that are stored within, I still get the little number that there is a chat pending to be read, even though I no longer receive the sound notification.
But with restricted chats I have achieved everything I needed , not only do I hide the chats and make them “disappear” from the WhatsApp “chats” tab, but by activating another series of simpler parameters, I have even managed to not find out when I have new messages.
That is, I go into WhatsApp and I don’t know when I have a message pending to read , it doesn’t even appear on the app icon on the outside, and that’s exactly what I wanted. In certain chats, due to certain circumstances, I don’t want to be constantly aware of what they publish.
Especially if it’s a group chat with a lot of activity. And since leaving the chat is not an option, this has allowed me to focus my attention on the important conversations on my phone within WhatsApp, because now I know that if I receive notifications, they come from conversations that interest me (friends, family, etc.).
I restrict or block the chat and remove notifications
And you might be wondering, how can I do all that? Very simple, first I restrict or block the chat . What this option does is hide the WhatsApp chat from the main conversations tab and put it in a folder protected with Face ID or password, so I also have it protected.
And once there, I silence notifications, whether for individual or group chats . It is true that if I go into the “restricted or blocked chats” section, I will see that I have unread messages because the number with the specific amount appears, but as long as I don’t go in there, I won’t find out anything.
In addition, this folder is hidden when I log out and back into WhatsApp, and to see it I have to scroll down slightly in WhatsApp to see it right above the “archived chats” section if it exists. In short, exactly what I was looking for as I explained.
But let’s get down to business. I’m going to show you how I managed to hide my chats and not receive notifications from them without blocking or archiving them. In my case, I have an iPhone and the steps to follow would be the following:
- Within WhatsApp, I locate the individual or group conversation that I want to hide from the “chats” tab and slide my finger to the left over the chat. A menu opens on the right, where I click on the three-dot icon
- Now I check the option “restrict chat” or “block chat” if you have an Android.
- Next, if it’s the first time you’re using WhatsApp’s restricted or blocked chats, you’ll be asked to block them using Face ID, or the fingerprint reader if you have an Android phone.
- I notice that the chat has disappeared from my view and it seems to be from WhatsApp, but it is not, it is just hidden, I just have to stay as high as possible on the “chats” tab and do a little scroll down , I immediately see the “restricted or blocked chats” section.
- I click there, my entry is verified with the Face ID and there I have the restricted chat, now I swipe left again with my finger on that chat and click on “more” .
- Now I press “mute” .
- Next, I check the “always” option to not receive notifications .
And that’s it, even if that person sends me WhatsApp messages now, I won’t know that they did so until I go back to the “restricted chats” section, and the same would happen with any group. You can see that I didn’t need to block the contact.
I won’t receive any sound notifications on my iPhone and when I log into WhatsApp I won’t know if I have a new message in that restricted group or individual chat until I access the section. But it’s not all good, and having a restricted chat has some drawbacks.
For example, if you receive multimedia content such as a photo or video, that content will not be saved on your mobile , and they will also continue to call you on WhatsApp, even if the chats are there. In that case, you will have to block incoming calls on your iPhone or Android.
But, ultimately, if you want to hide WhatsApp notifications from a group or chat with someone and not find out anything, not even when you enter the app, try WhatsApp’s restricted chats feature to see that it works very well with this possibility.