WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging platforms in the world, with over 2 billion active users. One of the key features of WhatsApp is the ability to make voice and video calls through the app. However, users also have the option to mute contacts if they do not wish to receive notifications from certain people. This raises an important question – if you mute someone on WhatsApp, can they still call you?
What happens when you mute someone on WhatsApp?
When you mute a contact on WhatsApp, you stop receiving notifications for any messages or calls from that person. This includes:
- No sound or vibration when they send a message
- No preview of their message in your notifications
- No alerts when they call you
Essentially, muting someone prevents their messages and calls from causing any disruptions on your device. However, it does not block them outright. This means muted contacts can still call and message you on WhatsApp – you just won’t be notified about it.
Can a muted contact call you on WhatsApp?
Yes, a muted contact can still call you on WhatsApp. Muting does not affect someone’s ability to call you through the app in any way. When a muted contact makes a WhatsApp call to you, here is what happens:
- The call will not make any sounds or vibrations on your device.
- You will not see any caller ID or notifications for the incoming call.
- The call will appear in your call log after you miss it.
- If you have enabled call logs privacy, it will not show up in your call history.
- The contact will not know if you muted them or simply missed their call.
So in essence, the call still comes through but produces no alerts for you to answer it. If you happen to have the WhatsApp open and see the incoming call, you can still choose to answer it. Otherwise, you can simply miss the call as if the person never called at all.
What happens if the muted contact leaves a voicemail?
If an incoming call from a muted contact goes unanswered, the person has the option to leave a voicemail through WhatsApp’s in-app voicemail feature. However, you will not receive any notification for this new voicemail if the contact is muted. The voicemail essentially goes to your inbox quietly without you realizing it.
To check for any new voicemails from muted contacts, you need to manually open the Calls tab in WhatsApp. Here, you will see a section called “Missed Voice Calls” – any voicemails left by muted users will show up here. You can then listen to these voicemails as normal.
So in summary:
- Muted users can leave voicemails when you don’t answer their call
- You will not get any alert for this new voicemail
- You have to manually check missed calls to see the voicemail
Can you automatically reject calls from a muted contact?
Unfortunately, WhatsApp does not have an option to automatically reject or block calls from muted contacts. Even if you mute someone, any incoming calls will still ring on your device without notifications.
However, on Android devices, you can use your phone’s Do Not Disturb settings to automatically reject WhatsApp calls from muted contacts. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings > Sound & vibration > Do Not Disturb preferences.
- Tap on Allowed contacts and choose “All contacts except…”.
- Select the muted WhatsApp contacts you want to auto-reject.
- Enable “Auto reject calls fromblocked numbers & contacts” option.
This will automatically send all incoming WhatsApp calls from muted contacts to voicemail. Note that this only works on Android phones.
On iOS, there is no direct way to auto-reject WhatsApp calls from specific contacts. You will have to manually reject the calls when they come through.
Can you view calls from muted contacts in your call history?
Yes, missed calls from muted contacts will still show up in your WhatsApp call history by default. To see them:
- Open the Calls tab in WhatsApp
- Tap on Missed Voice Calls
- You will see calls from muted contacts listed here
However, you can prevent muted calls from appearing in your call log by enabling call history privacy:
- Go to WhatsApp Settings > Account > Privacy
- Turn on “Hide Missed Call History”
This will stop saving any missed call logs from muted contacts. The calls will still come through but leave no record after you miss them.
Should you mute or block someone on WhatsApp?
Muting contacts is useful when you don’t want to be disturbed by someone temporarily. However, if you want to stop someone from contacting you altogether, blocking them is more effective.
Here is a comparison between muting and blocking on WhatsApp:
| Action | Muting | Blocking |
|---|---|---|
| Stop message notifications | Yes | Yes |
| Hide message previews | Yes | Yes |
| Stop calls from coming through | No | Yes |
| Prevent user from calling you | No | Yes |
| Stop profile photo/status updates | No | Yes |
| Remove chat history | No | Yes |
As you can see, blocking someone completely cuts off all communication from that person. So if you want to stop getting disturbed by a contact, blocking is better than just muting.
Can you unmute calls from specific contacts?
If you’ve muted multiple contacts on WhatsApp but now want to unmute some of them and receive their calls again, it’s easy to do:
- Open WhatsApp and go to Settings.
- Tap on Notifications > Muted.
- You will see a list of all muted contacts and chats.
- Tap on the contact you want to unmute.
- Select Unmute to stop muting their notifications.
This contact will now be able to call and message you normally, with all notifications enabled again. You can follow the same process if you ever want to mute them again.
Conclusion
To summarize, muting a contact on WhatsApp does not actually block their ability to call you – it simply mutes the notifications from that user. Incoming calls will still come through silently even if a contact is muted. The only way to fully prevent calls is to outright block the contact.
Muting can be handy for temporarily quieting certain contacts. But for stopping communication permanently, blocking is usually the better option. Hopefully this guide has helped explain how muting and blocking works on WhatsApp along with their differences!