In this article
Swiping a chat sideways in the list mutes it. That is the fast version, and it is enough for the group that is currently ruining your afternoon.
The longer version is more useful: mute for a chosen length of time, keep being notified when somebody actually needs you, and stop the loud chats reaching your phone at all while the important ones still do.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Mute a chat in one gesture, and for a length of time rather than forever.
- check_circle Stay reachable in a muted group when someone mentions or replies to you.
- check_circle Give one person a sound that gets through everything else.
- check_circle Tell when muting is the wrong tool and archiving is the right one.
Holding the mute option rather than tapping it is what opens the durations — a straight tap is the permanent one.
notifications_off Muting happens on the account, not on the phone
Silencing a chat is not a local setting. It is recorded against your account, so the chat is quiet on your phone, your tablet and your desktop at once, and it stays quiet if you sign in somewhere new.
A timed mute is stored the same way, as a moment in the future. When that moment arrives the chat becomes audible again everywhere, without you having to remember you muted it.
There is a second consequence. Because the servers know a chat is muted for you, they do not send a waking notification for it — the messages arrive when you next open the app. A phone in a dozen busy channels is measurably better off for it.
Four ways to make a chat quieter
They are not degrees of the same thing. Each answers a different complaint.
schedule A duration, not forever
alternate_email Silent unless it is about you
volume_up A sound for one chat only
folder Out of the list, not just quiet
The combination worth setting up once: mute the group, keep mentions on, archive the ones you cannot leave.
settings Where the controls are
- The quick way Swipe the chat sideways in the list, or hold it and choose the bell.
- For a duration Open the chat, tap its name, then Notifications. This is where the timed options and the custom time live.
- For mentions and replies Same screen. The exception for messages addressed to you is a separate switch from the mute itself.
- For a custom sound Also on that screen, per chat.
- For everything at once Settings, Notifications and Sounds — separate defaults for private chats, groups and channels, which is where to start if the whole phone is too loud.
This page is the mute controls. The curriculum step builds the whole system: per-chat tones, keyword alerts, what breaks through a phone's Do Not Disturb, and how to arrange a hundred chats so only a handful can interrupt you.
At a glance
- 1Mute fast
Mute for an hour, a day, or a custom time instead of forever.
- 2Stay reachable
Mentions and replies still notify you in muted groups.
- 3Mute or archive
Mute stops noise; archive clears the list.
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