After the latest improvements introduced in calls and video calls, and while we wait for the multi-device mode to reach the stable version, WhatsApp has added another feature that it had been working on for several years: the vacation mode.
What is WhatsApp vacation mode?
But don’t get confused, because it doesn’t come with that name. It’s called ‘Keep chats archived’ and allows us, as the name suggests, to keep archived chats hidden, even when we receive a message in them. We are going to explain how to activate this new feature that comes just in time for all those who start their break period in August.
It was in 2018 when speculation began that WhatsApp would include a “vacation mode”. The idea was that, when activated, chats that had been muted (the work one, for example) would remain archived despite receiving new messages.
A few months later it became known that this feature would not be called “vacation mode”, but would receive a more neutral and descriptive name: “ignore archived chats” or something similar. In addition, it would not apply to muted chats, but archived chats.
The feature finally ended up landing in the WhatsApp beta last May and has now started to roll out in the stable version of the app. Thanks to this new feature, archived chats will no longer be automatically unarchived after receiving a new message, as was the case until now.
Once the feature is activated, no archived chat, whether individual or group, will return to the main screen even if there are new messages in it.
How to activate WhatsApp vacation mode to keep chats archived?
Very simple, once the chats in question have been archived, just tap on the three dots icon at the top, go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Chats’ and activate the ‘Keep chats archived’ checkbox. From then on, all the chats you archive, whether individual or group, will not return to the main screen even if there is a new message in any of them. You will not receive their notifications either, of course.
Another option is to go into the Archived WhatsApp section at the top of the chats. There all the individual chats and groups that you have archived are displayed, you just have to click on the icon of the three dots, tap on ‘Archiving settings’ and check the box ‘Keep archived chats’.
So, we are not facing a vacation mode as such (even if you see it so written around), but it is a function that will be very useful if you want to “pause” a WhatsApp group because you don’t need it for a while. And nothing prevents you from using it also to hide a private conversation from the main list of chats.
