Group text grants you the ability to easily communicate between multiple people, which is especially useful in a professional setting. However, there are times when it turns from friendly banter to an obnoxious riot. Not only can the influx of messages drain your battery, but it can also eat up your data. Can’t you just leave the group? Of course, you can! Maybe.
For one, abruptly leaving a group chat might be considered rude by other parties. You can’t just excuse yourself when all of your other relatives are a member of the group. They may take it the wrong way.
You also may not physically (or virtually in this case) be able to leave. Some messaging apps on Android won’t let you leave the group no matter what. The only way to be removed is to ask the group’s admin to do it for you.
Fortunately, you can opt to mute the group chat instead. This way, you won’t receive any notifications from the group, but you can still view the messages if you want to. This is a handy feature provided by all messaging apps so that you don’t have to take drastic measures, like turning off your phone, to deal with other people’s inability to maintain air silence.
Mute Group Text on Android Messages
First, we will start off with Android Messages, the built-in messaging app for most Android OS devices, including Google Pixels. Here’s what you need to do.
- Open up the Messages app. If you have trouble finding the app, the logo is a white speech balloon on a blue circle background.
- From the Messages’ home screen, select the designated group conversation you want to mute.
- Once you open the group’s conversations in full screen, tap on the three vertical dots icon on the top-right corner to open up a dropdown menu.
- Choose People & Options from the list of options.
- Toggle the Notifications switch to off. You can unmute the group anytime by turning the switch back on.(Images needed for these steps)
Mute Group Text on WhatsApp
WhatsApp Messenger is one of the most— if not the most—popular messaging apps. With approximately 2 billion active users, there’s a decent chance you already have this app installed on your phone. To mute a group text on WhatsApp, you need to:
- Open WhatsApp, then tap on the CHATS tab located at the top part of your screen, just beside the camera icon.
- From the list of groups or individual conversations, tap the group you wish to mute.
- Click on the three vertical dots icon on the top-right corner of the screen once the group’s conversation is fully displayed.
- Select Mute Notifications from the dropdown menu.
- Using WhatsApp, you can choose how long you wish to keep the group chat on mute. If you simply need to mute the group momentarily during an important meeting or class, the 8 Hours option is probably enough. Otherwise, if you feel that the group will bother you for a long time, the 1 Week or 1 Year option might do the trick.
- Make sure that Show Notifications is left unchecked. Should you check the box instead, the group messages will come to you through the notification bar. However, you won’t receive any kind of audible alert.
- Once you are satisfied with your option, tap OK.
- You can unmute any group text by tapping on the same three vertical dots icon and selecting Unmute Notifications.
Additionally, with WhatsApp, you can also exit a group chat if necessary.
- Under the CHATS tab, tap on the group you wish to exit.
- Once the group’s conversation is open, tap on the name of the group at the top screen to look at the group’s info.
- Scroll down to the very bottom and select Exit Group.
- Tap on Exit.
Mute Group Text on Telegram
Telegram is also a famous messaging app with more than 500 million downloads on PlayStore. The app is well-known, particularly as a group chat platform. Being part of a group with thousands of members is not an uncommon thing in Telegram. If you are a member of one of these groups and you find it getting to be too much:
- Open the Telegram app.
- Select which group you want to mute from the home screen.
- Afterward, tap on the three vertical dots icon at the top-right of the screen.
- Tap Mute Notifications, then choose for how long you want to mute the conversation.
- If you wish to permanently silence notifications from the group, select Disable.
Final Thoughts
When someone exits a group, all of its other members can see it. In today’s day and age, this can make things a little awkward. Social media connectivity is taken almost as seriously as in-person interaction. That’s why opting to mute a group chat instead is a great alternative to mitigate any possible issues.
Naomi Bergner says
Thank you! I couldn’t quite find this step to mute a group conversation.