Read Later feature arrives on WhatsApp. This function will replace archived chats and automatically silences the notifications.
WhatsApp, the ultimate messaging app, is not going through its best moments right now. The different controversies that have arisen after the changes in its privacy policy have caused a massive migration to apps like Signal and Telegram. However, this does not prevent the app from adding new functionalities. The latter replaces the archived chat section with ‘Read Later’ and automatically disables notifications.
Read later’ is actually the name that appears in the beta of the Android app. Currently in testing, the functionality has been discovered by WABetaInfo in the 2.21.2.2 beta version for Android. As seen in the screenshots, it is a name change for the archived chat section that adds some extra features.
Messages will be archived and muted
The functionality for archiving chats has been in WhatsApp for several years now. An archived chat simply means that it no longer appears in the recent conversations section. However, it reappears the moment we receive a new message, regardless of whether we have archived the conversation. This is no longer the case with ‘Read Later’.
As we can see from the screenshots where WhatsApp describes the functionality, we will not receive any notification of chats that have been saved in ‘Read Later’. WhatsApp itself indicates the reason for this: “To reduce interruptions, chats with new messages will stay here and you will not get any notification”.
That said, it seems that it will be possible to use WhatsApp as before. In the app settings there is an option for chats that receive new messages and are in ‘Read after’ to return to the main screen. By activating this option we essentially make ‘Read After’ simply a name change.
Be that as it may, at the moment it is a change that has appeared in the beta version of WhatsApp. This means that you do not have to reach the final version and if you do you can also do it with more changes or variations. It is also not clear when WhatsApp will decide to implement this for all users.