WhatsApp launches forever mute option for chats; here's how it works

The popular instant messaging app 'WhatsApp' has unfurled a new feature that allows users to mute groups or a personal chat forever. Earlier, one could mute someone for 8 hours, a week or 1 year. Now, you can mute anyone forever by choosing 'always', till you change your mind.

WhatsApp chats are unmuted once the deadline is over. With the 'always' option, you won't have to keep going back to mute particular chats all the time.

WhatsApp, through its Twitter account shared the new update. The 'Always' option will replace the '1 year' option that was originally part of the settings. This new feature is present on both iOS and Android devices, as well as on WhatsApp web.

WhatsApp had been testing this feature in the beta version and now it is widely rolling out to the stable version.

The Mute notifications have another feature to it. The Android version of the app gives you an option to 'Show Notifications' even after you mute it. This implies that although the chat will be muted and no pop up notification will show on the screen, the message will still be visible on the drop down menu of the main notification panel of Android smartphones. However, this feature is unavailable for iOS users.

To access the new mute feature, open the WhatsApp app. Click on the chat that you want to mute and select from the options available, like '8 hours', '1 week' or 'always'. There! Good riddance.

Also read: Part of too many WhatsApp chat groups? Now you can mute some of them forever