WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. With so many people using WhatsApp, you may sometimes want to mute certain chats or contacts if their notifications become bothersome.
Muting a chat or contact on WhatsApp is easy to do and can be incredibly useful. When you mute someone on WhatsApp, you stop receiving notifications from them, allowing you to avoid distracting or annoying notifications. However, muting does not block or remove the contact.
What gets muted when you mute someone on WhatsApp?
When you mute a contact or chat on WhatsApp, you stop receiving all notifications from that person or group. This includes:
- Message notifications
- Group notifications
- Status updates
- Missed voice and video calls
Essentially, muting stops all forms of notifications coming from that particular contact or group chat. You will no longer see notifications pop up or hear notification sounds when the muted person messages you or posts an update.
Does muting someone on WhatsApp block them?
No, muting does not block someone on WhatsApp. When you block someone, you stop receiving any messages, calls, status updates or other content from them. Their messages will no longer reach you at all.
Muting is different – you still receive the messages, calls etc. from that person, you just don’t get notified about them. Muting eliminates notifications, while blocking stops all communication.
Can a muted person on WhatsApp see my online status?
Yes, someone you have muted can still see when you are online, when you last used WhatsApp, and any status updates you post. Muting does not affect their ability to see your profile and status activity.
Your online/last seen status and status updates will remain visible to a muted contact. The only change is that they are muted from your end.
Can I still send messages to a muted contact?
Muting does not affect your ability to send messages to a contact. You can continue messaging and calling them as normal.
The only difference is you will not get notifications if they respond or call you back. You will need to manually check the chat to see any new messages from a muted contact.
How do I mute someone on WhatsApp?
Muting a chat or contact is easy to do on both iPhone and Android devices:
iPhone
- Open the WhatsApp chat with the contact you want to mute
- Tap their name at the top of the chat window
- Tap ‘Mute’ on the next screen
- Choose to mute for 8 hours, 1 week or always mute
Android
- Open the chat you want to mute
- Tap the Menu button (3 dots in top right)
- Tap ‘Mute’ on the menu
- Select how long you want to mute the chat
And that’s it – the contact or group chat will now be muted from your notifications. Repeat these steps to unmute them again.
Can I mute someone’s WhatsApp status updates only?
Unfortunately, there is no way to mute only a contact’s status updates on WhatsApp. The mute option mutes all notifications from that person or group.
If you only want to mute status updates, your only option is to fully mute the chat. You have to choose between getting notifications for messages or muting everything.
What are the advantages of muting on WhatsApp?
Here are some of the benefits of using WhatsApp’s mute feature:
- Avoid distracting notifications from busy groups or chats
- Mute noisy group chats so you don’t miss important updates in active chats
- Give yourself a break from work colleagues or group chats outside work hours
- Prevent unnecessary notifications from chats you rarely engage in
- Mute annoying contacts who send too many messages
Muting gives you control over your notifications and allows you to minimize disruptions from low priority chats.
Can a muted chat reappear at the top of my chats?
Yes, muting does not pin or lock a chat in place. If a muted chat has new activity, it can still move back to the top of your chat list.
For example, if a muted chat has multiple new messages, it may reappear at the top again as if it were unmuted. This could happen with group chats that get very active.
The only difference is you still won’t get notifications from the muted chat when this happens.
Will my mute settings sync across devices?
Yes, muting chats and contacts syncs across devices. If you mute a chat on your phone, it will remain muted when you login on another device.
WhatsApp uses your account information to sync muting preferences across devices. This ensures a consistent experience.
Can I mute chats by keyword?
Unfortunately, WhatsApp does not have an option to mute chats based on keywords or messages. You can only mute full chats and contacts.
Some third party apps claim to offer keyword muting, but this requires giving external access to your chats which can be risky.
Can I mute a contact’s voice notes?
There is no way to selectively mute only voice notes from a contact. When you mute someone, all notifications are muted including voice notes.
If you want to mute only voice notes, you would have to mute the whole chat. An alternative is to turn off sound for voice notes in your WhatsApp notification settings.
Conclusion
Muting chats and contacts on WhatsApp is a simple but useful feature to manage your notifications. While it does not block or remove the contact, muting gives you control over which conversations you want notifications from and avoids distractions.
The muted person will not know they are muted, and muting does not affect your ability to send them messages. Muting simply silences notifications from a particular chat until you unmute them again.