New WhatsApp features to make muting more effective

Messenger apps such as WhatsApp can be used to make phone calls over the Internet as well as to send text messages. — dpa

WhatsApp may introduce a feature that will indefinitely hide muted chats for users who want time away from specific groups, without resorting to ignoring or deleting the app completely.

WhatsApp leak site WABetaInfo claims the feature will be aptly called Vacation Mode, which when turned on allows users to stop archived chats from reappearing if they are muted. 

Currently, archived chat(s) will unarchive and reappear on top of the list of chats whenever a new message is received. This happens even for muted chats. 

This feature will have an on/off option in Settings, so once users are ready to see the muted archived chats reappear, they just need to turn off Vacation Mode and wait for a new message to be received.

WABetaInfo says the feature is under development, and is based on a new feature just rolled out for Android WhatsApp users called Silent Mode. 

Silent Mode works with the Android feature called App Badge, that shows a number on an app's icon indicating the number of new notifications received – for example for Facebook, Twitter, and mobile games.

Thus Silent Mode is effectively an upgrade to the Mute function, as muted chats will now no longer add to the number displayed by the App Badge. 

The net effect of these changes seems to suggest that WhatsApp wants to make muting more effective so users receive alerts from important contacts instead of being constantly harassed by noise.