Hiding chats from the list of available chats in WhatsApp for Android, iOS and Windows

Sometimes there are conversations in the general chat list in WhatsApp that you want to hide from prying eyes. This could be a conversation with a colleague, a personal conversation, or just a chat that clutters up the main window. Fortunately, there are several convenient ways to solve this problem in the messenger.

It doesn't matter what device you use — Android, iPhone, or the computer version of WhatsApp for Windows. Each platform has its own method for removing chats from view. We will look at the simplest and most effective options, from archiving to creating hidden chat rooms.

In this article, you'll learn how to quickly tidy up your chat list and keep your private conversations confidential. These settings will help you feel more confident and organized when using the app on a daily basis.

Hiding chats and groups in WhatsApp

The creators of WhatsApp have not provided any of the existing versions (for Android, iOS, and Windows) of the messenger with the ability to create hidden chats in the literal sense, which is present in competing solutions (for example, Viber). Therefore, if the user's goal is to hide any correspondence from the eyes of unauthorized persons who have access to the device, the best solution would be to set a password for the application.

More details: How to set a password for the WhatsApp messenger app

Next, we will discuss the function of archiving WhatsApp conversations. The procedures described below are mainly intended to improve the convenience of working with the list “Chats” by moving individual, rarely used, or temporarily saved dialogues and groups to an archive that is virtually invisible from the application. At the same time, archiving a particular conversation is also used to prevent people who open the messenger from seeing its title.

Android

WhatsApp for Android provides two options for archiving chats. The first of the methods described below can be applied to a single conversation or several conversations, while the second allows you to hide all dialogues and groups from the main screen of the messenger at once.

Method 1: “Chats” tab

To archive a single conversation or group, follow these steps.

1. Launch WhatsApp for Android and go to the “Chats” at the top of the screen, find the button that looks like a box with a downward arrow and tap it.
2. 
3. Long press on the area with the conversation title and participant/group avatar to select it.
4. 
5. At the top of the screen, find the button that looks like a box with a downward arrow and tap it. That's it! A notification confirming the success of the operation will appear for a few seconds, and the title of the chat or group will disappear from the list of available chats.
6. 

The above method allows you to remove several chats from the list at once. To do this, before performing the third step of the instructions, tap on the titles of the chats you want to hide one by one, thus marking the conversations to be archived.

Method 2: Settings

Users who want to hide the entire list of chats and groups available in the messenger should do the following:

1. Open WhatsApp and go to “Settings” applications. The settings screen in the messenger can be accessed from the menu that appears after tapping on the three dots in the upper right corner.
2. 
3. Tap In the messenger's “Chats” section, find the conversation you want to archive., then open “Chat history”.
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5. Next, tap on the name of the option “Archive all chats”. To complete the procedure, tap on “OK” confirm the request received from WhatsApp.
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7. Returning to the tab with the list of dialogs and groups in the messenger client application, we find that their titles and the inscription “In archive (number)”.
8. 

To conclude the description of ways to hide dialogs and groups in WhatsApp for Android, we would like to note two points:

• Archiving a chat does not restrict its use in any way, and you can reverse the operation at any time for a dialogue or group.

  More details: How to unarchive a chat in WhatsApp for Android

• Users who follow the above instructions specifically to hide their conversations from prying eyes should keep in mind that any activity in an archived conversation (an incoming message from another participant) will result in its removal from the invisible list. To avoid the unexpected appearance of an unwanted title on the tab “Chats” messenger, you can resort to temporarily placing the interlocutor on the “blacklist.”

  More details: How to block and unblock a contact in WhatsApp for Android

iOS

In WhatsApp for iPhone, archiving conversations is very simple and quick. Here, users can perform the procedure for a single conversation (group), as well as the option to simultaneously hide all conversations in the list. “Chats” in the messenger elements are missing.

Method 1: “Chats” tab

To remove the titles of temporarily unused dialogues and groups from the messenger screen or hide unwanted conversations, do the following.

1. Open WhatsApp and tap the “Chats” in the bottom panel of the screen. Find the correspondence to be archived.
2. 
3. Swipe the chat header to the left until two buttons appear – “More” and “Archive”.
4. 
5. Tap the button “Archive”, after that, the operation is complete.
6. 

You can also archive a single chat by swiping its header to the left until the end. Acting on the items in the list “Chats” one by one, you can significantly speed up the process of transferring several conversations to the archive.

Method 2: Settings

If you have accumulated a lot of dialogs and groups in the messenger and need to archive them all at once, you can use a special option available in the “Settings” WhatsApp for iOS.

1. Go to “Settings” messenger by tapping the icon of the same name in the right corner of the bottom panel on the application screen.
2. 
3. Open the settings section “Chats”, and then tap the name of the target function – “Archive all chats”.
4. 
5. Tap “Archive” in the area at the bottom of the screen that appears, confirm the system request. This completes the transfer of all dialogs and groups to the archive, and returning to the section “Chats” application, we find confirmation of the effectiveness of the operation.
6. 

By default, you can open a PHP file on your computer using a browser, but only to view the source content without any processing. This is primarily because PHP is a server-side language and cannot be processed by standard browser tools on a PC or any other platform.

• Sooner or later, you may need to extract an archived dialog or group from the hidden list. To unarchive as quickly as possible, follow one of the instructions provided in the article at the following link:

  Hiding dialogs and groups in WhatsApp

• First of all, I recommend using the built-in Windows utility to clean up your hard drive. This tool deletes temporary files and other data that is not important for the operating system to function properly. To open Disk Cleanup, right-click on the C drive in the “My Computer” window and select “Properties.”

  ↑ Processor battles

Android

Now you need to select any folder on your computer where the archives with the library components will be unpacked. Be sure to remember this path, as you will need to go to it later.

The creators of WhatsApp did not provide for the ability to create hidden chats in any of the existing versions (for Android, iOS, and Windows) of the messenger, which is present in competing solutions (for example, Viber). Therefore, if the user's goal is to hide any correspondence from the eyes of unauthorized persons who have access to the device, the best solution would be to set a password for the application.

Method 1: List of open chats

To transfer a single WhatsApp conversation or group chat to the archive, you need to follow these steps on your computer:

1. Open WhatsApp for Windows and find the title of the archived conversation or group in the list on the left side of the messenger window.
2. 
3. Windows
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5. In the list of available actions that opens, click “To archive”.
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7. As a result, a notification will appear in the WhatsApp window for a while “Chat archived”, and the conversation title will disappear from the list of available ones.
8. 
9. To archive several WhatsApp dialogs or groups, or to hide them all, you will need to perform the above steps in the Windows messenger client for each chat header you want to hide.

Method 2: Synchronization

In summary, we can say that the principle of WhatsApp's operation in the Windows environment is to duplicate what happens in the mobile client. This also applies to the archiving procedure, so in some cases it may be more convenient and faster to perform the operation from a smartphone where the “main” messenger is installed. Due to synchronization, the effect of performing one of the instructions suggested above in the article in the Android or iOS environment will automatically extend to the WhatsApp client application for PC.

Additionally:

• When archiving a single conversation or group chat, don't think that you'll have to perform complicated actions to use it in the future. Unarchiving is very simple, and WhatsApp users can use more than one method to do it.

  More details: How to unarchive a chat in WhatsApp for Windows

• To avoid finding that the archiving function does not meet your expectations in the future, keep in mind that dialogs and groups that are invisible in the WhatsApp for Windows window will cease to be so when one of their participants sends any message to the user who has hidden the chat. Therefore, in some cases, it may be advisable to temporarily add the “secret” interlocutor to the list of blocked contacts in the messenger.

  More details: How to block and unblock a contact in WhatsApp on a computer

As you can see, hiding a chat in WhatsApp is a simple task that can be done in just a couple of taps. Whether you use an Android or iOS phone, or even the computer version, this feature is always at your fingertips.

The main thing to remember is that this is hiding, not deleting. Your conversations will not disappear and will appear in the general list as soon as a new message arrives. This is convenient for temporarily clearing your chat list of rarely used conversations without bothering to delete them completely.

When using archiving to hide correspondence from people who have access to your iPhone, keep in mind that when a participant in an invisible chat is active, it is automatically unarchived, which means that its title will appear in the list of available messengers. To prevent (temporarily) receiving messages from a particular contact, their details must be added to the WhatsApp blacklist.