It can be particularly annoying when your cell phone keeps beeping and vibrating because new WhatsApp messages arrive every minute. Messenger will soon have its own function for exactly such situations, a kind of “holiday mode” that ensures peace and quiet in your free time.
The WhatsApp feature is officially called “Leave chats in the archive”, but since it was first announced in 2018, most users have simply called it “Vacation mode”. Of course, if you want total peace and quiet during the holiday season, WhatsApp can also be temporarily deleted. Alternatively, you can also turn off the notifications or just mute certain contacts. Then you only see messages from these people or groups if you actively go into the app. If you don’t want to see these chats in the WhatsApp overview either, you can archive them so that they disappear from the normal view. The downside: as soon as a new message arrives, it goes back to the other chats. The so-called WhatsApp “holiday mode” should change that.
This is how you use the “holiday mode” on WhatsApp
The well-informed blog “Wabeta info“ already reported in 2020 that WhatsApp is working on vacation mode again. Two years earlier, there were first indications of the practical function that permanently mutes chats so that they don’t disturb you on vacation. Normally, WhatsApp will show new messages even if a chat has been archived. With the “Leave chats in the archive” function, this no longer happens automatically. Instead, archived chats remain hidden even when new messages arrive.
The feature WhatsApp is working on allows users to archive individual chats or groups – such as work groups – while on vacation. What is the specific difference between it and normal muting? In the chat overview for new messages, for example, a group chat in which vacation mode is switched on is no longer displayed at all. The user is therefore no longer informed about new messages, not even with push messages on the lock screen.
To do this, proceed as follows:
- Open WhatsApp and go to settings.
- Under “Chats” you will find the “Leave chats in the archive” slider, which you can then activate or deactivate accordingly.
- Then push the complete history into the archive by long tapping on the corresponding chat in the overview.
Tip: You can also use the chat settings to move all chats to the archive in one go, so that nothing disturbs or distracts you on vacation.
More and more ways to switch to rest
The fact that WhatsApp is now more concerned with the rest of users and time off from their smartphones may sound strange at first, but the messenger is very much in vogue. Since the 11th generation, Google’s Android operating system has had a function to track and limit the usage time of apps. If the set time is over, you can only access the app with a password lock. Also, there are more ways to regulate emerging messages. Some manufacturers like OnePlus even go a step further. With Zen mode, users can switch off the smartphone completely for a certain period of time. Apple has also integrated a function called “Screen Time” into iOS 12, which shows how long the smartphone and individual apps have been used. This makes it easier for users to control their smartphone consumption and set time off from their smartphones, for example.