WhatsApp has become an integral part of our daily communication. However, the privacy and visibility of your contacts and conversations within the application may sometimes be less intuitive than you think. If you have ever wondered how to increase your privacy or simply reorder the WhatsApp interface, you are in the right place. We will explore different methodologies for “hide” specific elements, providing practical solutions for Android, iPhone and even desktop versions.
Hide a Specific Contact from WhatsApp List
WhatsApp, by its nature, import contacts directly from the phone book. This means that there is no direct option within the application to cancel a nomination while keeping it saved in the phone. The solution, therefore, is to act directly on the contact card in the address book of the device, modifying it so that WhatsApp no longer recognizes it as a valid contact to display.
Procedure on Android Devices
To hide a contact on WhatsApp while keeping it in the phone book, you can change its card smartly. Keep in mind that, by doing so, existing chats with that contact will remain visible in WhatsApp and you will need to separately store or delete them.
- Open WhatsApp and look for the contact chat you want to hide. If you don’t have an active chat, press on the white cartoon icon and search for contact to start a new one.
- Access the contact card touching his name up in the conversation.
- On the contact card, tap the icon with the three vertical dots (
⋮) and select the option “See the column”. You will be redirected to the Contact app of your smartphone. - Once in the contact card in the column, tap the icon of the pencil to make changes.
- Change the field “Name”, assigning a fictitious name or completely eliminating it.
- Copy the telephone number displayed in the field “Telephone”, then delete it and paste it into the field “Note” of the same card.
- Finally, tap the button “Save” up.
After these steps, the nomination should no longer appear in the WhatsApp contact list. If it persists, check that the contact is not saved in other Android accounts synchronized on your device (like a work account) and repeat the operation. For restore contact visibility, access the Contact app, search for the modified name, move the phone number from the “Note” section again in the “Telefono” field and save. Next, in WhatsApp, press on the white cartoon icon, then on ⋮ and select “Update”. If you use contact synchronization with Google, you can also make these changes from the Google contact panel accessible from any device, including your PC.
Procedure on iPhone
Hiding a WhatsApp contact on iPhone follows a logic similar to that for Android, based on changing the contact card in the native iOS app.
- Open the app “Contacts” of iOS (the icon with the omino).
- Browse the list or use the search bar to identify contact desired.
- Tap the contact name to open its detailed tab, then press the button “Edit” top right.
- As on Android, change the field “Name”.
- Copy your phone number, delete it from his field and paste it into the field “Note”, which you find sliding down.
- Complete the operation by touching “Fine” top right.
The nomination should now have disappeared from WhatsApp. Here too, for existing conversations, you will have to act separately by archiving them or eliminating them. For restore the contact, return to the Contacts iOS app, select the modified contact, press “Edit” and copy the mobile number in the appropriate field. Return to WhatsApp for any update steps.
Archiving WhatsApp Conversations for Occultarle
If you do not want to hide a contact completely but simply want one or more conversations not to appear on the main screen of WhatsApp, the storage function is the ideal solution. The archived chats are not deleted, but are moved to a separate section of the application, outside the immediate view.
On Android Smartphone
- Start WhatsApp and go to the “Chat” tab.
- Execute a prolonged tap on the preview of the conversation you want to archive.
- Awards oncube icon with arrow (the icon “Archivia”) that appears on the top right. The chat will be moved to the “Archives” section.
To find archived chats, scroll to the top of the “Chat” tab until you see the voice “Archives” and touch it. To ensure that chats remain stored even when you receive new messages, go to Settings > Chat and activate the lever for the voice “You keep the chats stored”. In this way, you will not receive notifications and the conversation will not appear in the “Chat” tab, but you will see a small green number next to the “Archive” item which indicates new messages. For recover a chat from the archive, hold pressed on its preview in the “Archive” section and tap the cube icon with the arrow (the “Estrai” icon).
On iPhone
- Open WhatsApp and go to the “Chat” section (by touching the appropriate item below).
- Locate the chat to hide and run one swipe from right to left on the name of the conversation.
- Press the button “Archivia”.
To access archived chats, scroll down to the “Chat” screen and tap the word “Chat archived”. For return a conversation in the main section, go to “Chat archived”, again swipe from right to left on the conversation title and press on the button “Extreme”.
On WhatsApp Desktop and WhatsApp Web
The storage feature is also available on WhatsApp computer versions.
- Once you start WhatsApp on your PC (Desktop or Web), move the mouse pointer on the chat you want to hide in the home screen.
- Let's go right click on the chat and select “Archivia”.
For restore a stored conversation, click on the menu icon (≡) top left, then up “Chat archived”. Right-click the desired chat and select “Annulla archiving”.
Manage Your Privacy: Make Your Contact Less Visible
If you worry about your general visibility on WhatsApp, it is important to know that if you are registered with your phone number, there is no way to prevent users who have your number in the column to find you on the service (unless you block them individually). However, you can check out a lot of information others see about you by changing your privacy settings.
The options you can manage include the latest access, the online status, your profile image, your info, your status (updates) and reading confirmations (the famous blue spuns). It is essential to remember reciprocity rule whatsApp: If you choose to hide this information from others, you will not be able to see it for other users.
To configure these settings (only possible from smartphones, not from PC):
- Open WhatsApp on your Android or iPhone device.
- Go Settings > Privacy (on Android, before “Settings” you may have to touch the icon
⋮on the “Chat” screen. - “Last access and online”: Tap this entry and choose the option you prefer between “Nobody”, “My contacts” or “My contacts except...”. To limit the display of the online status, select “Identical to last access”.
- Repeat the previous step for voices “Profile images”, “Info” and “State”, selecting the desired visibility options.
- “Confirm of reading”: Press the switch next to this item to disable it (by bringing the lever to OFF). Remember that you will no longer see the blue spuns for the messages you send.
Other Locations: What You Can And What You Can't Hide
In addition to basic features, there are other cases related to “secretity” on WhatsApp, some of which are supported, others are not.
Contacts Locked
If you have blocked a user on WhatsApp, its name will continue to be displayed on the blocked contact list within the app settings. Currently, you cannot hide a contact from this list. The only available action is to unlock it if you want it.
Photos Profile of Other Contacts
It is not possible for a user to hide the profile photo of another contact from their view. The visibility of the profile image is a setting that can only be managed by the account owner through their privacy settings.
Frequent contacts
There is no direct function to “discount” frequent contacts. However, it is possible to intervene on the dynamics that make them such in viewing, i.e. the chat location in the chronological list and the length of conversations. Here are some strategies:
- File the chat: Moving a frequent conversation into the archive, you remove it from the top of the list of recent chats, making it less obvious.
- Delete the latest messages: If you delete the last messages of a chat, this will be placed in the chronological order and will no longer be like a chat “updated recently”.
- Enable ephemeral messages: This function causes messages to be erased automatically after a preset time period, reducing the track of frequent interactions.
- Empty chat: Open the chat, tap the menu icon (
⋮on Android), select “Other” and then “Empty chat”. This deletes all messages of the conversation; you can save a backup of the chat before emptying it.
Members of a WhatsApp Group
Unfortunately, it is not possible to hide members of a group to the other participants. All members of a WhatsApp group can see the full list of other participants.
Privacy on WhatsApp is a multifaceted theme and, although the application offers different options to control visibility, some situations require a more creative approach or simply a greater understanding of its mechanisms. By adopting these strategies, you can more effectively manage your experience on WhatsApp, ensuring a greater level of confidentiality and control.
