What you need to know
- WhatsApp for iPhone has been updated.
- It will no longer show unread badges for muted chats.
- Now we won't be distracted by something we'd told WhatsApp we didn't want to be distracting.
If you're a big WhatsApp user you probably have a fair number of chats muted. It's the only way to carry on with a productive life without having your phone pinging like crazy. But WhatsApp has an annoying situation where it shows you an unread badge, even if it's for a chat that's muted. Well, no more!
A new app update, spotted by The Verge, makes things work exactly how they should. Now, no muted chat will increase WhatsApp's unread badge count. You'll never know a message has arrived until you check WhatsApp manually, which is kind of the whole point of muting a chat in the first place.
Finally.
This is a big deal if you find yourself on the receiving end of far too many WhatsApp notifications. And as The Verge notes, it's a huge improvement on how things worked before this update landed.
The messaging app's mute feature is invaluable if you want to reduce distractions, particularly if you're a participant in any large group chats. Before the update, muting a chat would only stop your phone from vibrating and playing a notification sound when it received a new message, while doing nothing about the anxiety-inducing red notification badge placed on the app's icon on the home screen.
This change in behavior affects both individual and group chats, too. It's the former that usually caused the most badge pain for me, but it's good to see the change rolled out across the board.
You can download WhatsApp, including this update, for free from the App Store now.
