WhatsApp ‘Archived Chats’ Relocated, ‘Ignore Archived Chats’ Feature Spotted Testing

WhatsApp was spotted testing a new feature called “Vacation Mode” back in October last year that would provide users with more control over archiving a conversation. While the “Vacation Mode” feature is yet to arrive, it has again been spotted in testing in the latest Android beta build of WhatsApp under the name “Ignore archived chats”. Moreover, the latest WhatsApp beta update for Android (version 2.19.101) also adds a dedicated “Archived chats” tool under the main menu on the app's homepage. The change is now live for all users who've downloaded the latest WhatsApp beta update for Android.

The new beta update for WhatsApp's Android client does not bring any major change or new features to the table. The only noticeable change is that the “Archived chats'' tool can now be accessed from the home page by tapping on the three-dot icon at the top. Thanks to the relocation, users no longer have to scroll all the way down in the chat feed to locate the archived chats. Users can now tap the “Archived chats” option to access their archived chats.

As per a report by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is also testing the erstwhile ‘Vacation mode” under a new name called “Ignore archived chats”. This feature will prevent archived chats from getting automatically unarchived when a new message arrives. The “Ignore archived chats” feature can be activated by following this path: Settings > Notifications > Ignore archived chats. However, this feature is reportedly under development and is not visible to users who have downloaded the latest beta update.

Notably, the “Ignore archived chats” feature is slightly different from the “Vacation mode” that was spotted testing back in October last year. The “Vacation mode” could only prevent an archived chat from being unarchived if was muted. However, “Ignore archived chats” will prevent both muted and non-muted chats from being unarchived if they were archived in the past.

We discussed what WhatsApp absolutely needs to do in 2019, on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.