How To Mute (and Ignore) Messages on WhatsApp on Android

Learn how to ignore WhatsApp messages by muting chats and disabling read receipts

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

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This wikiHow teaches you how to ignore messages in WhatsApp by muting a chat or disabling read receipts.

Things You Should Know

Mute a WhatsApp chat by tapping and holding a chat and selecting the speaker with a line through it.
Uncheck the box for "Show notifications" so you will not receive notifications from this chat as long as it is muted.
Open the Privacy tab of your WhatsApp Settings to find and remove the checkmark from Read Receipts, allowing you to more easily ignore a chat.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

1
Open WhatsApp. It's the green and white chat bubble icon with a phone receiver inside. You'll find it on the home screen or in the app drawer.
- This method will disable notifications for any individual or group chat. New messages will still appear in the chat, but you'll no longer be notified upon their receipt.
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A row of icons will appear at the top of the screen.
It's the speaker with a line through it at the top of the screen.
You will not receive new sound/vibration notifications for this chat for the duration you choose. You can choose 8 Hours, 1 Week, or 1 Year.
6
Remove the check mark from “Show notifications.” This makes it so you don't see on-screen notifications when you receive a new message in this chat.
- If you still want on-screen notifications (without sound and vibrations), you can skip this step.
7
Tap OK. Notifications are now muted for the amount of time you selected, making it easy to ignore new messages.
- You can still see new messages in the chat by selecting it on the Chats screen.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

1
Open WhatsApp. It's the green and white chat bubble icon with a phone receiver inside. You'll find it on the home screen or in the app drawer.
- This method will help you disable the feature that allows your contacts to see when you've viewed their messages.
It's at the top-right corner of the screen.
It's in the “Messaging” section. Once the box is blank, your contacts will stop seeing blue check marks when you've read their messages. You also won't see blue check marks when they've read yours.