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How to hide incoming whatsapp messages


How to hide WhatsApp notification content or message preview on your home screen

WhatsApp users can hide the content of their messages from displaying on their home screens by tweaking the notification settings from their WhatsApp app or phone settings.

Yasmin Ahmed

New Delhi,UPDATED: Dec 7, 2020 18:17 IST

By Yasmin Ahmed: People often panic at the thought of relatives or friends reading their messages. In the age of WhatsApp and incessant incoming messages, it is always a sane option to hide message preview on the home screen. It is convenient for iPhone users as the settings can be managed from the WhatsApp app itself. Android users can also tweak notifications by going to their phone settings or trying out the following methods. After disabling the notifications, the content of WhatsApp messages will not be revealed on the home screen.

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Enabling the fingerprint lock on WhatsApp

-- Open WhatsApp

-- Top three dots or Menu button

-- Go to Settings

-- Select Account

-- Go to Privacy

-- Select Fingerprint lock

-- Turn the toggle on for Unlock with Fingerprint

-- Select Immediately once the fingerprint lock is enabled. You may be directed to set up a fingerprint lock for your phone first.

-- Turn the Toggle off for Show content in Notifications.

Other methods for customising Notifications include turning off high-priority notifications. To turn off high-priority notifications, users should:

-- Open WhatsApp

-- Go to Settings

-- Select Account

-- Select Notifications

-- Turn the Toggle off for high-priority notifications

Users must note that they may still receive notifications even after turning the toggle off for high priority notifications. To be safer, they can change notifications by going to phone settings.

Android users can go to Phone Settings to further customise notifications:

-- Go to Settings

-- Select Notifications > Manage Notifications

-- Select WhatsApp app

-- Depending on the requirement, users can either completely turn their notifications off or selectively turn off top preview and display notification details on the unlocked screen.

-- Users can also select if they want to receive notifications for sending media, call notifications, critical app alerts, etc.

-- Alternately, users can go to message notifications and turn the toggle off for pop-up or sound notifications.

iPhone users can tweak the notifications by followin the given steps:

-- Open WhatsApp

-- Go to Settings located in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

-- Go to Notifications

-- Disable the Show Preview option.

Edited By:

Yasmin Ahmed

Published On:

Dec 7, 2020

How to Hide WhatsApp Chats on Android and iPhone [2022]

“How to hide WhatsApp chats on Android? My parents keep looking at my WhatsApp and I don’t want them to access all my private chats with my friends.”

We all use WhatsApp to chat with our friends, family, colleagues, and other contacts. Though, there are times when we don’t want others to access our WhatsApp chats since they can be pretty private. In this case, you can just learn how to hide chats in WhatsApp with a password or can just archive them.

To do this, you can use the native feature of WhatsApp or just try any third-party app as well. Read on as in this ultimate guide, I will teach you how to hide WhatsApp chats on iPhone and Android in every possible way.

Part 1: Hide WhatsApp Chats on Android/iPhone With the Archive Feature

To start with, let’s discuss the native solution to hide WhatsApp chats on both iPhone and Android. Ideally, you can move any WhatsApp conversation to its archive. In this way, the chat would still be there on your WhatsApp, but you can’t access it the usual way and have to visit its archives. To learn how to hide chats in iPhone/Android via the archive feature, just follow these steps:

Archive WhatsApp Chats on iPhone

1. If you have an iPhone, then just launch WhatsApp on your device and select the chat you wish to hide.

2. Swipe left the chat you wish to save and go to its more options. From here, just tap on the “Archive” option to move it to WhatsApp Archives. You can also select multiple chats and move them to archive in one go.

3. To access these hidden chats, launch WhatsApp and scroll all the way up. Here, you can find the Archived Chats option above the search bar.

4. Simply tap on the Archived Chats option to view the hidden conversations. Swipe left the conversation and tap on the “Unarchive” button to make it visible on your WhatsApp home.

Archive WhatsApp Chats on Android

1. Simply launch WhatsApp on your Android and hold the chat icon you wish to save. You can select multiple chats and group threads from here.

2. Once you make the needed selections, just tap on the archive icon at the top-right corner of the screen.

3. To access your saved chats, launch WhatsApp and scroll at the bottom. Now, you can tap on the “Archived Chats” button here.

4. Select the conversations you wish to unhide and tap on the un-archive icon to move them to your WhatsApp home again.

Part 2: Hide Chats in WhatsApp without Archive

As you can see, with the archive features of WhatsApp, we can hide or unhide chats whenever we want. Though, a lot of people want to learn how to hide chats in WhatsApp without an archive as the feature is known by others. In this case, you can use a third-party app like GBWhatsApp on Android to hide your chats. It is a tweaked version of WhatsApp that offers tons of advanced features.

In case you have an iPhone, then you need to first jailbreak your device to use a tweaked app like this. It is recommended to be careful while using a WhatsApp tweak, as your account might get suspended if you get caught by WhatsApp. To learn how to hide chats in WhatsApp without archive, just follow these steps:

1. Firstly, go to your device’s Settings > Security and enable app installation from unknown sources. Uninstall WhatsApp from your Android and go to the official website of GBWhatsApp to download the app.

2. Launch the GBWhatsApp app on your phone and enter the existing phone number that is linked to your WhatsApp. Verify it by entering the one-time password and accessing the advanced features of WhatsApp.

3. Simply select the chats that you wish to hide and tap on the more options (the three-dot) icon from the top. From here, just tap on the “Hide” option.

4. Now, a pattern screen will be displayed for you to implement the lock code for the hidden chats. Make sure that the pattern is different from the phone’s lock screen and that you would remember it.

5. To view the hidden chats, you can launch the GBWhatsApp app and tap on the WhatsApp icon on the top-left corner.

6. Verify the pattern lock for the hidden chats and view all the saved conversations here. You can select any chat here, tap on the hamburger (three-dot) icon at the top and choose the “Mark as Unread” option. This would unhide the selected chats and send them to WhatsApp home.

Part 3: How to Lock All WhatsApp Chats?

The above methods would be ideal to hide or archive individual chats. If you are concerned about your privacy, then you should lock all WhatsApp chats instead. There are numerous devices these days with a feature to lock any app with a code or fingerprint. Recently, even WhatsApp has rolled out the option to lock the app with our fingerprint for Android devices. Therefore, you can take the assistance of this native feature or even use a third-party app locker.

1. If you want, you can just go to the Play Store and download any app locker. For instance, ChatLock+ is a popular app that you can try to lock WhatsApp.

2. After installing, launch the ChatLock+ app and turn on the option to lock WhatsApp from here. Just be sure that you have given the app the needed permissions in advance.

3. Enter a unique 4-digit PIN that would work as a lock for WhatsApp. Now, every time you open WhatsApp, you need to enter the pin and can protect your chats from intruders.

4. Alternatively, if you have an Android phone that supports fingerprint scan, then launch an updated version of WhatsApp on it.

5. Go to its Settings > Privacy > Fingerprint Lock and turn on the feature to unlock WhatsApp with the fingerprint. From here, you can choose to automatically lock WhatsApp after a selected duration as well.

Part 4: Backup WhatsApp Data in One-click

Our WhatsApp chats can be extremely important to us and have professional or personal details. Therefore, you should make a regular practice of taking WhatsApp backup to your computer. To do this, take the assistance of a reliable tool like MobileTrans. A powerful application, it can take a complete backup of your WhatsApp data with a single click. This includes your chats, media files, contacts, voice notes, stickers, and every other WhatsApp data. Apart from that, you can also restore WhatsApp chats or transfer them from one device to another as well.

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1. To backup WhatsApp data, just connect your phone to the system and launch the MobileTrans on it. From its home, launch the "Backup & Restore" feature.

2. Now, go to the App Backup & Restore section and click on the Backup button and then choose to Back up WhatsApp. 

3. Click on the Start button to begin backing up your WhatsApp data to the computer. When the process is completed, you will be notified by MobileTrans. You can now remove your device or even view the backup.

4. If needed, you can connect your device and choose the option to restore WhatsApp chats later on. 

There you go! After reading this guide on how to hide WhatsApp chats, you must be able to keep your private chats secure. For your convenience, we have listed solutions on how to hide chats in WhatsApp with and without archive.

Apart from that, if you wish to keep your WhatsApp data safe, then use MobileTrans. There are both Android and iOS versions of this desktop tool that you can install on your Windows/Mac and backup your WhatsApp chats with a single click. It can also restore WhatsApp backup or directly transfer WhatsApp data from one phone to another.

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17 ways to make WhatsApp safer and more private

October 23, 2019Technologies

Protect the messenger with a PIN code, remove information about the last time you were online, and hide notifications from prying eyes.

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1. Set up two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication greatly increases the security of your account. It will protect you if scammers somehow get access to the SIM card.

Open WhatsApp and tap → Settings → Account → Two-Step Verification → Enable. Enter and remember the code you created, then enter your email address - you will need it if you need to reset your PIN. Click Done.

Now, every time you log into your WhatsApp account, in addition to the SMS code, you will also need to enter your PIN.

Read also 🧐

  • How to set up two-factor authentication for all your accounts

2. Disable pop-up messages

When your smartphone is locked, it still shows pop-up notifications. This is very convenient, but not safe: if you conduct confidential correspondence, anyone can spy on the contents of sent messages and the addressee's name on an unattended gadget. And it doesn't require a fingerprint or password.

Therefore, paranoid notifications should be turned off. There are two ways to do this: in WhatsApp itself and in the smartphone settings. In the messenger, open "Settings" → "Notifications". Turn off "Priority Notifications" in the "Messages" and "Groups" sections.

In the smartphone settings, the same is done as follows: open the system "Settings" → "Applications and notifications" → WhatsApp → "Notifications". Uncheck the "Show notifications" option.

If you don't want to turn off notifications completely, at least turn them off on the lock screen. To do this, tap "Settings" → "Lock screen" → "Advanced" → "Lock screen notifications". Here you can hide their content so as not to show the text of your messages to strangers, or simply disable them.

3. Block unwanted contacts

WhatsApp has a huge number of spammers, scammers and just weird and unpleasant people. Luckily, if you don't want to receive messages from someone, you can simply blacklist them.

Open a chat with an unwanted contact and tap "Menu" → "More" → "Block". Or select a conversation with him and press "Menu" → "View contact" → "Block".

You can view users in the black list and, if necessary, remove them from there by pressing "Menu" → "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" → "Blocked".

4. Hide your active time

All WhatsApp users can see the last time you went online. But you can disable this feature so that overly annoying interlocutors do not ask questions why you do not respond to their messages.

Go to "Menu" → "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy". Click the item "Was (-s)". Change it from Everyone to Nobody. This way no one can see when you were last online. But keep in mind that in this case, you will not be able to see which of your friends when you went online.

5. Hide details

Details is the caption that appears next to your name in your contact list. For newly registered users, this field contains “Hey there! I am using whatsapp. You can specify ready-made statuses there, for example, “At work”, “Busy” or write any quotes.

And if the message in your Details field is not for everyone, tap Menu → Settings → Account → Privacy → Details and select either My Contacts or Nobody.

6. Hide statuses

Statuses allow you to share photos, videos, text, and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours. By default, they are shown to all your contacts. If you like to share gifs with cats with your friends, and they come to your boss, you run the risk of being in an awkward situation.

Therefore, go to "Menu" → "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" → "Status". Select the "Contacts except" option and specify the people you don't want to annoy with your pictures. Or click "Share With" and your statuses will only be shown to the people you choose.

7. Hide your photo

Perhaps you want only people you know to see your profile picture. To do this, tap "Menu" → "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" → "Profile photo" and select the option "My Contacts".

8. Hide the read receipt

When you receive and view a message from someone, the sender has a read receipt checkmark next to their reply in the chat. This is usually convenient, but can sometimes lead to awkward situations. For example, you forgot to write to a friend in time, and he was offended.

To avoid this, tap Settings → Account → Privacy and turn off Read Receipts. Please note, however, that in this case you will no longer see the notification checkmarks. And in group chats, this feature does not work.

9. Read messages in flight mode

There is a little trick for those who do not like the previous paragraph. If you don’t want to turn off read receipts, but still want to look at the received letter and not tell anyone about it, switch your smartphone to flight mode. Then open WhatsApp and read the message. Then close it, turn off airplane mode, and the sender won't get a read receipt.

10. Hide conversations

If you want to hide but not delete a WhatsApp conversation, you can archive it. Press and hold the desired chat until you highlight it. Then, in the top menu, tap the "Archive" button.

Of course, any person who even knows how to use WhatsApp will still find a hidden chat if you give him time to sit on your smartphone. But still, thanks to archiving, confidential dialogues are not so conspicuous.

To view the archive of chats, scroll to the very bottom of the list of conversations and click the inscription "Archived". There you can also remove conversations that you added by mistake.

11. Disable location sharing

WhatsApp allows you to easily share your location with your interlocutor. This is much faster than typing an address. By default, WhatsApp prompts you to choose how long to show your location to a friend: 15 minutes, an hour, or 8 hours.

But it would be embarrassing to find out that you showed someone your location in real time for a long time because you mistakenly sent geodata to the wrong person.

To avoid this, go to Settings → Account → Privacy → Location and make sure you don't share your movements with anyone else.

12. Send private messages from public chats

When you reply to someone's messages in public chats, everyone in the conversation can see it. But you can also send private responses. To do this, highlight the message in the general chat and select the "Reply in person" option from the menu.

13. Revoke unwanted administrator rights

Have you appointed someone as an administrator in a group you created, and he is abusing his authority? Revoke his rights. To do this, press and hold a group in the chat list, then tap Menu→Group Details. Select the name of the desired person and click "Revoke Admin".

14. Hide photos and videos from the gallery

By default, the WhatsApp client on Android saves all received media files to your smartphone's gallery. That is, if someone sent you a confidential photo, you may very well accidentally show it to your friends when you show off pictures from your vacation to them.

Go to Settings → Chats and turn off Media Visibility. Now uploaded files will not be saved in the gallery. At the same time, save mobile traffic.

15. Block the app

In WhatsApp for iPhone, you can secure the app with biometric authentication. Thanks to this, no one will be able to read the correspondence and send messages on your behalf, even if you leave your smartphone unattended.

Open WhatsApp and tap Settings → Account → Privacy → Screen lock. Turn on Touch ID for fingerprint recognition or Face ID for face recognition. Then choose how much time of inactivity to block WhatsApp after.

On Android, this feature is currently only available in the beta version of the app.

Read also 🧐

  • Whatsapp on Android has a fingerprint unlock feature

16. Delete unwanted messages

Sent someone a message and immediately realized that you shouldn't have done it? Whatsapp allows you to fix this error. To do this, press and hold the message until you highlight it, and then select the "Delete" option from the menu.

True, unlike Telegram, WhatsApp does not delete the message without a trace. Instead, the recipient will see "This message has been deleted." What you have sent will not be deleted after about an hour.

Read also 🧐

  • How to delete WhatsApp messages when this option is no longer available

17. Disable message backup

WhatsApp can back up your conversations to Google Drive on Android or iCloud on iOS. This will come in handy if you want to recover your messages after a system reset or transfer them to another device.

But in the cloud, messages are stored in unencrypted form, which, by the way, WhatsApp warns about in the settings of this function. So if someone gets access to your vault, then the correspondence will be in the wrong hands. If you've secured Google Drive and iCloud with two-factor authentication, there's not much to worry about. But it’s still better for paranoid people to disable message backup altogether.

Tap "Settings" → "Chats" → "Backup Chats" → "Backup" and set the switch to "Never". Now WhatsApp will store copies of chats only in the smartphone's memory.

Read also 🧐

  • 10 useful tips for every WhatsApp user
  • How to send photos in original size on WhatsApp
  • The most detailed comparison of Telegram, Viber and WhatsApp

How to hide incoming WhatsApp messages on the lock screen Android

Reading 2 min Views 1. 1k. Posted by

Popular instant messengers have quite actively entered the lives of modern people who like to communicate regularly with their friends. One of these messengers is WhatsApp, where users can share entertainment content: photos, videos, and chat. Therefore, the developers of the application make it as confidential as possible so that it is convenient for many users.

If a person does not want outsiders to see with whom he most often communicates on the WhatsApp network, then chats can be configured as hidden by default. All of them are in the upper corner of the list, they can be transferred to the archive, that is, archived. Moreover, the user at this time continues to communicate with other interlocutors, and notifications are received as new incoming. All incoming SMS messages on an Android phone can be hidden in a simple way.

In order to hide incoming notifications in the messenger on the lock screen, you need to perform a number of actions:

  • Open the WhatsApp application and find the necessary correspondence with the interlocutor to hide.
  • Click on the chat several times, the "Archive" slider will appear in the opening line.
  • Click on it and the function - message archiving will be activated.
  • To verify a positive result, you should scroll through the dialogue with the interlocutor and tap on the line "Archived chats".

To restore a dialog from the archive folder, follow the same process. However, part of the text may still be accessible to an outsider. To eliminate this nuance, there are several ways to make incoming messages hidden. You can turn off the display of a small part of the text in the WhatsApp settings mode, or configure your mobile device in such a way as to exclude the display of notifications on the network.

If you need to hide your WhatsApp chat on the lock screen so that it is not visible together with the notification, you can do this as follows: