There are no less than 40 features of your WhatsApp. And those features are the reasons why it is the most used instant messaging app worldwide. How to hide WhatsApp chat, as we are about to consider in this article. While WhatsApp may not have a feature to hide chats, it has an alternative archive feature. Archiving a chat means hiding it from the main chat screen without deleting the chat.

hide and unhide chats in WhatsApp

1. Hide and Unhide WhatsApp Chat with Archive

Before WhatsApp recently updated the feature, when you hide a WhatsApp chat with the archive feature, it will reappear once there is a new message from the chat or group. But now, you are the one who determines if a chat should be hidden or it should not. However, you can use the alternative archive settings to determine if it should stay hidden or reappear when receiving a new message. This section of the article will show you how to hide and unhide WhatsApp chat with the archive feature.

Hide and Unhide Chat in iPhone WhatsApp with Archive

To Hide an iPhone Chat or Group

Step 1. Use the search bar to find the chat or group you want to archive. Or you can scroll through your chats screen to find it.

Step 2. Swipe left on the chat or group.

Step 3. Click on Archive.

To Hide All iPhone Chat at Once

Step 1. Open Settings in your WhatsApp.

Step 2. Click on Chats.

Step 3. Select Archive All Chats.

To Unhide an iPhone Chat or Group

Step 1. Navigate to the top of your chats screen.

Step 2. Select Archived Chats.

Step 3. From the list of archived chats, swipe left on the chat you want to unhide.

Step 4. Click on Unarchive.

Hide and Unhide WhatsApp Chat in Android Phone with Archive

To Hide an Android Chat or Group

Step 1. Use the search bar to find the chat or group you want to archive. Or you can scroll through your chats screen to find it.

Step 2. Hold down on the chat or group until it is marked with a tick.

Step 3. Click on the square-shaped icon with an arrow pointing down at the top of your screen.

To Hide All Android Chat at Once

Step 1. Open Settings in your WhatsApp.

Step 2. Click on Chats.

Step 3. Tap on Chat history.

Step 4. Select Archive All Chats.

To Unhide an Android Chat or Group

Step 1. Navigate to the top of your chats screen.

Step 2. Select Archived Chats.

Step 3. From the list of archived chats, hold down on the chat you want to unhide until it is marked with a tick or loads a dialogue screen.

Step 4. Click on Unarchive or the square-shaped icon with an arrow pointing up at the top of your screen.

Bonus Tip: How to Recover Archived Chat in WhatsApp

Chats archived are not deleted, and they are not backed up because you have archived them. However, they are backed up to your Google Drive when the rest of your chats are backed up. Regardless of how you lost a chat or backed it up, you can recover your chats back on iPhone and Android.

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Follow the guide below for direct retrieval of WhatsApp chats from iOS.

Step 1. Download D-Back and connect your device to the computer.

Select a mode from the four options. Let's take recover from iOS device storage as an example.

Recover WhatsApp chats from iPhone

Step 2. Start to scan your device. Select the type that you need to recover.

Start to scan WhatsApp chats

Step 3. Preview and recover data.

The recoverable data will be shown as the picture below. And you can choose to recover the data to your mobile device/PC.

preview recoverable WhatsApp data on D-Back

To recover your WhatsApp Chat, you can use our iMyFone D-Back application(iOS 15 supported). It is a great software tool to access both archived and unhidden chats that are deleted or lost for other reasons. You can even perform a review and select your chats before restoring them, especially if you do not want to restore all your chat. What's more, it can recover all the data types that are available on WhatsApp.

2. Hide and Unhide WhatsApp Chat without Archive

Before the feature update to keep archived chats hidden even when new messages dropped, many users preferred not to use the feature. At the time, there were alternative means, which were mostly third-party apps that people used to hide and unhide their WhatsApp messages.

Hide and Unhide WhatsApp Messages on Android

Android users can use a cloned WhatsApp version with the hide and unhide feature. GbWhatsApp is the popular alternative to many features that WhatsApp users are clamoring for, including hiding and unhiding chats.

To Hide an Android Chat or Group with GbWhatsApp

Step 1. Install the GbWhatsApp and set up your account.

Step 2. Navigate to the chat you want to hide.

Step 3. Hold down on the chat until it is selected.

Step 4. Click the hamburger (or three dots) icon at the top of your screen.

Step 5. From the options menu that will show on your screen, click on Hide.

Step 6. For security reasons, GbWhatsApp will ask you to set a pattern.

Step 7. Once you have set the pattern, your chat is hidden safely.

To Unhide an iPhone Chat or Group with GbWhatsApp

Step 1. Click the WhatsApp text on the top left side of your GbWhatsApp screen.

Step 2. Enter your lock pattern to see all the chats you hid.

Step 3. Hold down on the chat until it is selected.

Step 4. From its options menu, click Mark Chat as Visible.

Hide and Unhide Chat in WhatsApp with Password [iPhone]

Our software tool mentioned above does more than chat recovery. After scanning your WhatsApp data, you can use iMyFone D-Back to hide or unhide your chat. After selecting the chat that you want to hide from the preview screen. The app will require you to input a password to lock the data. You will also use this password to unlock the chat's data.

FAQs about WhatsApp Hide Chat/Contact/Status

Q1. What Happens When You Hide a Chat on WhatsApp

When you hide a chat on WhatsApp, you will not get notifications on your device for the chat. Also, the chat will not reappear on the chat screen when you get a new message except you enable the function. However, you will get notifications from an archived chat if you were mentioned/tagged in the chat or replied to.

Q2. How Can I Hide Someone on WhatsApp

You can hide someone on WhatsApp with the archive function. The feature will prevent the person you have hidden from showing up on your chat screen.

Q3. Is It Possible to See Hidden WhatsApp Status

WhatsApp will not notify you if someone has hidden their status from you. Hence, the answer is no. While the straightforward answer to this question is no, there are alternative solutions. A popular example is GbWhatsApp, which you can use to see hidden WhatsApp status.

Conclusion

Hiding and unhiding WhatsApp chats are important privacy features. And this feature comes as an archive on WhatsApp. This article has examined how to hide and unhide anyone or group on WhatsApp . However, there are also alternative tools like iMyFone D-Back that you can use to lock or hide your WhatsApp chats.

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