WhatsApp Users Can Now Keep Archived Chat Threads Tucked Away Forever, Even if They Get a New Message

WhatsApp on Tuesday announced the rollout of its new Archived Chats settings that will allow users to keep their archived chats muted even when they receive a new message in an archived message thread. This means that all your archived chats will stay tucked away permanently unless you choose to manually unarchive them. The change was initially provided to some iPhone users last week and is now rolling out to both Android and iOS. Make sure you have the latest version of the app on your device to experience the update.

The Facebook-owned company said in a blog post that the latest update is aimed to give users more control over their inbox and stay on top of their most important chats.

Prior to the update, archived individual and group chat threads on WhatsApp would unarchive if the user received a new message in that thread. WhatsApp, however, said that many of its users reported that they wanted archived messages to remain archive and stay tucked away from their regular messages in the Archived Chats folder. Therefore, it has brought the change to its Archived Chats settings.

The new settings allow you to archive all the less-important conversations if you don’t want them to appear in your main chats list. All you need to do is archive individual and group chats that you don’t want in your list. By default, WhatsApp will keep your archived chats separate even if they get any new messages. You can, however, disable the new settings by disabling the Keep Chats Archived option from the Chats settings menu on the app.

You will not receive any notifications for messages you get in archived chat threads unless you are mentioned or replied to.

WhatsApp appears to have been testing the new experience since at least April 2019 and brought it initially to some iPhone users through an update last week. However, it confirmed to Gadgets 360 that the new Archived Chats settings are now rolling out across all devices.

Users have the option to mute individual and group chats for some time. It was even extended to silence chat alerts forever through an always mute setting last year. But nonetheless, the latest update is aimed to go beyond muting certain chats and keep them away from your vision. You can, however, browse through them from the Archived Chats folder.