How to hide chat in WhatsApp without archive in Android

WhatsApp is currently the most used messaging smartphone application with over 1.5 billion active users.

For privacy, the user may want to hide a particular chat or conversation and not delete it.

WhatsApp now has a setting that allows you to hide chat in WhatsApp. This post will share the steps to achieve that on Android, iPhone, and Windows.

After the chat is hidden it is also possible to show back the hidden chats when desired. The method to bring the chat back is also shared.

Apart from that, if you are looking to lock WhatsApp completely with a password instead of just hiding the specific chats then we have shared apps to lock apps.

Depending on whether your smartphone is Android or iPhone, the apps you need to install will differ.

Hide Chat In WhatsApp

Note that the hidden chats will be moved to the main chat screen as soon as a message is received from that group or contact. The same goes when you send a message to the group or contact you archived or hid, making the chat is not hidden anymore.

If you want to avoid it, skip to the section below where we talk about how to hide WhatsApp chats with password.

How To Hide Individual Chats On iPhone (Video)

1. Open WhatsApp
2. On the chat screen, swipe left for the contact whose chat you desire to hide
3. Tap Archive
4. The conversation you selected will be removed/hidden from the main chat screen that appears when you open WhatsApp.

The archived conversation is moved to the Archived Chats folder.

You can view it by swiping up on the main chat screen where the chats of all contacts are listed.

Also, check our video that shows how to hide and unhide a chat in two different ways:

You can also hide group chat by following a similar procedure for your groups in WhatsApp. To view the chat you hide or archive, select Archived Chats and you will be able to view the chat of the contact or group which you hide.

How To Hide A WhatsApp Chat On Android

The procedure is more or less the same for Android and Windows to hide chats in WhatsApp with the difference being of the options present in slightly different places.

For example, in Android, you need to long-press on the chat of the contact to get Archive option(marked with red) rather than swiping left as in the case of the iPhone.

Also, watch our video showing the steps in action:

Hide Multiple Chats At Once

You can also archive multiple chats at once.

On iPhone

1. Tap Edit at the top left on the screen where all conversations appear.
2. Select the chats you want to hide/archive.
3. Tap on Archive at the bottom left.

On Android

1. Long tap on any contact.
2. Long tap on any other contacts that you wish to hide
3. Tap Archive icon

With this, you have archived multiple chats in one go.

Archive All WhatsApp Chats In A Single Action

You can also archive/hide all the chats by following these simple steps:

1. In WhatsApp, go to Settings
2. Tap on Chats
3. Tap on Chat history
4. Here, tap Archive All Chats.

READ ALSO : How to track WhatsApp Messages, calls, text messages and more

Hide WhatsApp Chats With Password (WhatsApp Lock)

If you want to avoid the case when your hidden chats show up after getting new messages, or if you want to lock WhatsApp itself instead of hiding individual chats, follow the methods below.

Android

You can use the Messenger and Chat Lock app available on Play Store for free to lock WhatsApp.

Here’s how to use it.

1. On opening, set a passcode which will be used as the passcode for apps in order to open them.
2. After you set the password, a screen will appear where you can lock the apps you desire. All apps are unlocked by default.
3. Toggle the button to On for WhatsApp as shown.

There you go! The next time you open your WhatsApp after doing this it will ask for a password.

iPhone

You can do it in to ways: Using a special app and setting up Touch ID on WhatsApp.

With An App

That said, you can always use workarounds. For example, you can use the Password for WhatsApp Messages app. It will make a copy of your WhatsApp messages, photos & videos and then lock them with a password. You can get this app from the App Store for $0.99.

Using Touch ID

Watch this video to see how to so it:

READ ALSO: Impressive way to set full size Profile Picture in WhatsApp

How To Unhide A WhatsApp Chat

At some point, you may want to unhide some chats. Here’s how to do it.

On iPhone

1. Swipe up on the main chat screen where all chats are listed.
2. Select Archived Chats. Here the chats which are archived/hidden are listed.
3. Swipe left on the chat of the contact you want to show back on the main chat screen.
4. Select Unarchive.

Now, the chat of the contact you unarchived will start showing up in the main chat screen and will no longer remain hidden.

On Android

1. Scroll to the bottom of the WhatsApp chats screen where all the conversations are shown. Select Archived Chats.

1. All the archived chats will be shown. Long tap on the conversation of the contact whom you want to unarchive and select the Unarchive icon at the top(second from right) as shown in the image below.

After this, the chat will be again shown on the main screen along with other chats.

READ ALSO: How to recover deleted WhatsApp messages

FAQs

Conclusion

Hopefully, these methods allowed you to hide WhatsApp chat or lock it all together on Android or iPhone.

Note that even hidden chats will be backed up. The only way to avoid it is to disable the WhatsApp backup altogether.

Also, hiding chats won’t affect WhatsApp notifications. If notifications in WhatsApp are not working for you, read our post to see how to fix it.

If you know about better apps for Android or any free app to lock WhatsApp chat on iPhone please share via the comments section.