How to Mute (and Unmute) Notifications on WhatsApp in a Few Quick Taps

For this guide, I wanted to show everyone how to mute (and unmute) WhatsApp chats on both their iPhone and Android devices with a few simple steps.

But not only that.

This is not the usual “how to” guide that you can find on millions and millions of other sites.

Here I will share with you everything you need to know about the subject. For example what happens when you mute someone on whatsapp, or how to know if someone muted you on whatsapp, and much more!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. I’m Frankie Caruso and I am an instant messaging app expert.

If you want to learn more about me, I suggest you take a look at my bio.

Back to us.

Why mute your WhatsApp notifications?

Most of the time it is just one annoying friend who has nothing to do but blow up your phone all day sending messages. Or group where you cannot engage in the current conversation and they keep sending pictures, memes, invitations, another messages Ledger draining your battery with all the notifications.

If any of these are your reasons, you have my complete sympathies. I hate receiving messages all the time, especially nonsense.

In other cases, muting chats on WhatsApp can be a great move to hide something from someone else.

Allow me to explain.

Perhaps one of your contacts is a “special friend“and you don’t want this flings messages to get broadcast on your phone when you are with your partner.

In this case, you might want to take a look at the guide that I created about preventing being caught cheating with WhatsApp.

Without any more explanation, let’s get your phone out and teach you how to mute your conversations in WhatsApp.

In short:

• Muting a WhatsApp group or a single chat is very simple and does not require any skills.
• On iPhone: Open WhatsApp > Tap on the chat (or group) you want to mute > Tap on the group or person’s name > and then select the Mute option.
• On Android: Open WhatsApp > Click on the chat (or group) you want to mute > tap on the three-dot menu on the top-right corner > and then select the Mute option.
• It is also possible to mute WhatsApp calls
• If you mute a contact they cannot know in any way that they have been muted

How to mute (and unmute) WhatsApp notifications on iPhone

Let’s begin with the explanation of the iPhone.

I want to show you how to mute someone on WhatsApp (a single chat or a group) and finally how to unmute both of these should you change your mind.

Let’s get started.

Mute chat in WhatsApp on iPhone

If you’re using an iPhone and wish to mute just a specific contact, here’s what you’re going to do.

1. Open WhatsApp and the specific chat you want to mute.
2. Tap on the name of the contact underneath their profile picture.
3. Once you have done this, you are at the contact info page, and you can choose there to Mute them.
4. There are lengths of time that you can choose to silence their notifications, beginning with 8 hours, 1 week, or Always.

Now, isn’t it extremely easy as I said?

A few things that you might want to know: I should remind you that muting a chat only stops notifications about the conversation. You are still very much able to view the entire conversation by opening up the application fully.

Mute group notifications in WhatsApp on an iPhone

As I mentioned before, you can also mute an entire group. Often, groups get very annoying when it comes to notifications on your phone.

Here is an easy way to solve this problem.

1. Open WhatsApp.
2. Open the group conversation you wish to mute and then click on the name of the group.
3. Tap on Mute.
4. Choose a length of time that you wish to mute the group, including 8 hours, 1 week, or Always

Congratulations, from now on you will receive much fewer than 1000 notifications per hour.

Just like single chats, silencing the group does not delete it. You only deactivate notifications with this process. If you open WhatsApp, you will find this group in your active chat list.

Unmute notifications on WhatsApp with an iPhone

Changed your mind and would like to backtrack?

No problem.

Unmute notifications on WhatsApp is extremely simple.

To unmute a chat you’ve muted, slide your finger to the left, then tap More (…) > Unmute

How to mute (and unmute) WhatsApp notifications on Android

So, let’s move on to Androids!

As before, I want to show you how to mute notifications of a single WhatsApp chat, a group, and finally how to unmute them if you change your mind.

Mute chats in WhatsApp on Android

Meeting a conversation on WhatsApp with an Android device is just as simple as using your iPhone that I just explained.

Now that your smartphone is out and ready to use, follow these steps.

1. Open WhatsApp and click on the chat that you wish to mute.
2. Choose the three vertical dots in the right top corner of the screen and tap on them.
3. Choose Mute.
4. Make your selection of how long you would like to mute this contact and this conversation. Your choices are 8 hours, one week, or always. You will be asked to confirm the selection.

Note: Depending on the Android phone that you are using and its particular brand, the information regarding the tabs and available options might change slightly. For instance, “Mute” might be listed as “Turn off notifications.” Completing this tutorial, I was using an updated Samsung Galaxy S22 with an Android 12 operating system.

Mute group notifications in WhatsApp on Android

Much like silencing a single chat, silencing a group with your Android phone on WhatsApp it’s just a simple. The steps are in fact very similar to one another; however, it is worth mentioning for the slight differences.

Here’s what you need to do.

1. Open WhatsApp.
2. Open the group that you want to mute and tap on the group subject.
3. Tap on mute or similarly labeled options.
4. Choose the length of time that you wish to mute these notifications (8 hours, one week, or Always) and then confirm by tapping OK.

Now that you have done this, I am pleased to inform you that you no longer have to endure millions of notifications from the WhatsApp groups that you are connected to. Your phone battery will also thank you!

Unmute notifications on WhatsApp on Android

The same is for iPhone, Android also allows you to unmute chats on WhatsApp as you please. You can always go back and unmute a conversation after temporarily disabling notifications.

Let me show you how to do this.

1. Open WhatsApp.
2. Open the thread or group that you have muted.
3. Click the contact’s name or the name of the group – or if you prefer the three vertical dots in the upper right hand corner.
4. Tap on Muted and then Unmute.

That’s it.

Alternatively to unmute a chat, tap and hold the chat you want to unmute until the green circle appears, then tap the speaker icon in the top right corner of the screen to unmute the chat.

What happens when you mute someone on WhatsApp?

It is important to know what happens when you mute someone on WhatsApp, so that’s what I will show you.

If you choose to disable chat (or group) notifications from a thread on WhatsApp:

• the contact will still be able to send you messages as normal
• they will still see your status and last access information
• they can still see your profile picture as well

What does happen, is that you no longer receive alerts like sound and vibrations from the person sending you a message.

It will also see that this person’s messages only become visible to you when you open the app. This silenced contact or group will have a crossed out the speaker icon to indicate that they are muted.

It really is not a decision that you have to spend a lot of time fretting over.

You are the only person who will ever know that you muted the conversation.

If you can manage to not spill the beans about it, and let everyone know that they’ve been muted, you will be fine. Otherwise, you will have some explaining to do. Of course, I will know, but I’m really good at keeping secrets.

How to know if someone muted you on WhatsApp

I want to be honest with you and, above all, not waste your time.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know if you have been silenced by someone on WhatsApp.

The only really effective way to know is to ask that person.

However, if you can’t (or don’t want to) ask, you can try the “traitor group” trick, but this doesn’t provide you with a sure result.

Let me elaborate.

Create a group by including the person you believe has silenced you plus a mutual friend (or acquaintance). If the person you suspect responds in the group and not in the private chat, it is possible that you have been silenced.

Difference between Mute and Block on WhatsApp

Ultimately, the objective might be the same and avoiding someone who is getting annoying.

There are some differences between blocking or muting a contact on WhatsApp.

Muting only disables notifications while blocking cuts off all forms of communicating between the two parties.

The block contact will not be able to send you messages, see your status or profile picture.

If you wish to block a contact, but you’re not comfortable doing so, you might want to take a moment to check out the guide on how to block (and unblock) WhatsApp contacts.

How to mute WhatsApp calls

I got some wonderful news!

Since about a year ago WhatsApp has given Android users the option to mute calls from a specific contact.

Unfortunately, this feature is not yet available on iPhone (however, I have found a trick to mute WhatsApp calls – I’ll discuss it later 😎).

Let’s proceed step by step.

Here is how to mute the WhatsApp calls of a specific person on Android.

1. To mute WhatsApp calls from a specific contact, open WhatsApp and go to the chat section.
2. Here, tap on the chat thread you want to mute calls from.
3. Click on the person’s name at the top of your screen.
4. When the person’s profile page opens, tap on the Custom Notifications option.
5. On the next screen, check the box adjacent to Use Custom Notifications at the top. The option to mute WhatsApp calls from this person will only be available when you enable this Custom Notifications.
6. On the same screen, tap on Ringtone under the Call notifications section and select None. Similarly, tap on Vibrate under the Call notifications section and select Off.

From now on, all WhatsApp calls coming from the silenced contact will be muted.

Naturally, you can repeat this process with as many contacts as you want.

Let’s jump to the iPhone.

As I mentioned there is no official way like on Android to mute calls from a specific contact.

However, you can block the user.

As a matter of fact, if you block the person they will not be able to call you and consequently not bother you 😉 You can always unblock them whenever you want!

Conclusion

It did not take long for us to reach the end of this guide, and hopefully the information that you have provided you with the help you needed. I’m sure you now fully know how to mute a chat on WhatsApp with just a few simple clicks.

Before we say goodbye, let me give you a short recap on what I’ve said in the guide to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

In the first part, I explained in detail on how to mute single chats and group chats with your iPhone and Android. I also took some time to explain on how to reverse this process should you want to change your mind.

And the second part I’ll let you know what happens when somebody is muted on WhatsApp.

I took a moment then to answer some of the most asked questions about this topic to ease your mind.

Now, we really are done.

If you have any doubts, questions, or concerns, feel free to use the comment box beneath this post to reach out to me. I will be happy to get back with you as soon as possible.

I suggest you subscribe to my free newsletter where I share once a week tips and tricks about the most used messaging apps. I’ll be waiting for you on board 😎

A hug,

Frankie Caruso

PS – As I mentioned before, muting somebody on WhatsApp is often not enough. If you need more drastic measures, I suggest you take a look at how to block someone on WhatsApp instead.