WhatsApp is easily the most popular messenger service app out there. With most of us using it as our go-to chatting app, it’s no surprise that the term “WhatsApping” has become synonymous with chatting itself. But an unwanted result of being able to text everyone on the same platform is a messy, cluttered chat screen.
Though WhatsApp provides the option to archive conversations until you need them again, this never hides the chats permanently. As soon as you receive a new message, the chat would unarchive and go right back to the top of the main chat screen.
Thankfully, a recent update has introduced a new “Archived chats” option in the Settings menu that lets you keep those chats archived regardless of whether new messages are received or not. Here’s how you can archive unwanted chats, and with the new update, hide them for good.
Related: How to create a WhatsApp chat as a single member/participant
New feature: Keep chats archived!
Archiving chats and groups is all well and good. But if you don’t want chats to unarchive as soon as a new message comes up, there was nothing much you could do earlier. On top of that, having the archived section at the bottom of the chat screen is quite an inconvenient spot as well.
But an upcoming WhatsApp update will finally address this issue by bringing a new “Archive” menu screen to assist users. Note that this feature is available only on version 2.21.11.1 and above for WhatsApp bet users (as of May 19, 2021).
The new option easily solves the archiving inconveniences by making it easier to access Archived chats from the top of the chat screen, and allow you to keep chats archived even when you get a message. This is extremely useful for chats that you want permanently hidden without having to block the contact entirely.
How to archive a WhatsApp chat permanently
To hide archive chats permanently, open your WhatsApp app and then tap on the three vertical dots button in the top-right corner.
Choose Settings.
Tap on Chats.
Under “Archived chats”, toggle on Keep chats archived.
Now, just go ahead and archive any chat you want to.
All your archived chats won’t appear again in the Chats list as they used to earlier once there was a new message in the chat. They will just stay archived. BTW, you do not need to archive a chat again for this. And any chat you archive from now on will stay hidden until you unarchive it yourself manually.
How to archive a WhatsApp chat
If you’ve never archive chats before, here’s how to do it. On the chat screen, tap and hold the chat(s) that you want to hide. Then tap on Archive at the top right corner.
And just like that your chats are archived. On stable public versions (which is what most of us use), these archived conversations are found right at the bottom of the chat screen.
How to archive all chats on WhatsApp
You also have the option to archive all your chats. Doing this will hide all your open chats and give your chat screen a fresh start. Only those chats will be unarchived on their own that have received a message, ensuring that get to keep a clean screen and also never miss out on replying to those that text you. Here’s how you can do so:
Go to More options (three vertical dots) at the top-right of your screen.
Tap on Settings.
Then Chats.
Tap on Chat history.
Here, choose Archive all chats.
Hit OK to confirm.
How to unarchive a chat on WhatsApp
Enabling the “Keep chats archived” option will also get you a quick button called “Archived” at the top of your chats (as shown below), allowing you to check out archived personal and group chats easily. If you do not enable this option, the Archived option can be found at the bottom of all your chats.
To unarchive a chat, tap the “Archived” button section to the top does one more thing. It lets you access archived settings without having to go through WhatsApp settings again.
To access its settings, tap on Archived.
WhatsApp will show you all the personal and group chats you have archived. You can unarchive a chat from here.
How to disable permanently hiding Archived chats
Well, you can use the above to enable the feature to disable it too. Just toggle off the option called “Keep chats archived” under Settings > Chats. But here’s another easy and quick way to disable permanently hiding the archived chats.
Tap the Archived button at the top of your posts.
Then More options at the top right corner.
Tap on Archive settings.
And here you will get the same “Keep chats archived” option which you can toggle on or off whenever you want.
“Keep chats archived” not available?
Don’t worry if you can’t find the Archive menu option. It is available only on WhatsApp version 2.21.11.1 and above which, currently, is still in beta testing. The feature will make it to the stable public version and roll out gradually to users in the coming weeks.
If you want to get this feature right now, you can enroll in WhatsApp’s beta testing program and get the update for your device.
But as it’s still in development it isn’t available for beta testers either. Nevertheless, we can expect these upcoming features to change the way we keep our WhatsApp chats organized for the better.
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Hello.I am really in need of the permanent archive feature on whatsapp. I read your article and I am on version 2.21.131.1 and you say we need 2.21.11.1 so surely I should have this feature? I am on an iphone. Is that perhaps the issue? My settings have zero options to do with this feature. They just say chat wallpaper / save to camera roll / chat backup / export chat / archive all chats / clear all chats / delete all chats. I would really appreciate any insight on this. thanks.