If You Mute Someone on WhatsApp, Will They Know?
No, they won't know. When you mute someone on WhatsApp, the help center says contacts aren't notified that you've muted the chat. Their messages are still delivered, and if your read receipts are on, they still get blue ticks when you read.
People mean two different things by "mute someone": muting a chat, which stops your phone making noise for it, and hiding someone's status, which moves their updates out of your main list. They work separately, and neither one changes what the other person sees on their screen.
What muting a chat does
Muting silences the alerts for one chat, nothing more. WhatsApp's page says you'll still receive messages, but your device won't vibrate or make noise to notify you.
| Question | Answer from the help center |
|---|---|
| Are they told you muted? | No. "Contacts aren't notified that you've muted the chat" |
| Do their messages still arrive? | Yes. You still receive them |
| Do they still get read receipts? | Yes, if you have read receipts turned on |
| Does the unread count stay? | Yes, next to the chat |
| How long can you mute? | 8 hours, 1 week or Always |
So muting is a private setting. The other person sees the same ticks they always saw. If you want to know what the ticks show them, see WhatsApp ticks meaning.
What still gets through
Mute is not a block, and some alerts are built to cut through it.
- Mentions and replies. In a group, WhatsApp says muting still leaves notifications for mentions and replies. There's a separate Mute @all mentions switch in notification settings.
- @all. WhatsApp's August 2026 blog on group chats says @all can alert you to important messages even in muted groups, and that you can mute @all at any time.
- Lists. If you mute a list of chats, you'll still be notified if you're mentioned.
- Calls. The help page says you can mute calls and messages for a chat. For groups it shows separate Messages and Calls switches. For a one-to-one chat it shows a single Mute option, and the page doesn't spell out whether a call from that person still rings. If you need calls to come through, test with a friend.
Everything else lands as normal: the message appears in the chat, the unread count goes up, and the sender sees it delivered.
How to mute a chat
On Android, the help center gives these steps:
- Open the individual or group chat and tap the chat name.
- Tap Notifications.
- Turn on Mute. In a group, turn it on under Messages, Calls or both.
- Pick 8 hours, 1 week or Always, then tap OK.
To undo it on Android, go back to Notifications and turn Mute off. On iPhone the steps are chat name > Notifications > Mute notification, then pick the length; to unmute, tap Muted > Unmute.
Two other details from the help center. If you mute a group on your phone, it's also muted on WhatsApp Web and Desktop. And if you silence WhatsApp in your device's own settings, changes made inside WhatsApp won't override that.
Hiding someone's status
What older guides call muting a status is now Hide. WhatsApp's help page says hiding removes a status from the Status section of your Updates tab. You will still receive hidden statuses, but they're delivered to a Hidden updates section.
- Open the Updates tab.
- Tap the person's status, then More options (three dots) > Hide > Hide (on iPhone, More > Hide [name] > Hide). Or tap and hold the status and tap Hide.
- To bring it back, open Hidden updates, tap and hold the status and tap Unhide.
There's also a smaller switch. If you turned on alerts for someone's status updates, Android's notification page lets you turn them off from their status with More options > Mute notifications > Mute. Their updates stay in your list; you just stop being alerted.
Will they know? The help page describes hiding as something that changes your view. It says hiding or unhiding someone's status doesn't affect their ability to see yours, and it mentions no notice to them. We can't say more than that. To stop someone seeing your status, you change your own audience, covered in how to hide your status from someone. And if you're curious who sees yours, see who viewed my WhatsApp status.
One catch: a hidden contact can still send you a status with a mention, which arrives as a chat message. To stop mentions, WhatsApp says to block the person or archive your shared chat.
Mute vs archive vs block
| Action | What changes for you | What changes for them |
|---|---|---|
| Mute | No sound or vibration; messages still arrive and show in the chat | Nothing. Not notified |
| Hide status | Their statuses move to Hidden updates | Nothing documented. They still see yours |
| Archive | Chat leaves your Chats tab; no notifications unless you're mentioned or replied to | WhatsApp's pages mention no notice. See archiving a chat |
| Block | You stop getting their messages, calls and status updates | They can't message or call you, and your last seen, online, status and photo changes are hidden from them |
If the goal is silence from one person while keeping the chat, mute is the least disruptive. If the goal is no contact at all, read what happens when you block someone. For hiding a chat behind a lock, see WhatsApp chat lock.
Where Tenashi fits
On a business number, a muted chat is a quiet risk. If the owner mutes a noisy customer group on the one phone that holds the number, then nobody hears it, and a customer's question can sit there for hours.
Muting only changes alerts on that phone. When your number is connected to Tenashi, the messages from its DMs and groups still arrive in the shared inbox, where the team can assign a chat to an agent and add internal notes. Tenashi doesn't mute or unmute chats on WhatsApp for you. That covers chats on your own connected business number, from the day you connect it. For the wider setup see our guide to WhatsApp for business.
Plans start at $18/mo. Get started.
FAQ
If I mute someone on WhatsApp, will they know?
No. WhatsApp's help center says contacts aren't notified that you've muted the chat. They see the same delivery ticks as before, and if your read receipts are on they still get blue ticks when you read their messages. Muting only changes alerts on your own device.
If I mute someone on WhatsApp, do I still get messages?
Yes. WhatsApp says you'll still receive messages, but your device won't vibrate or make noise to notify you. The messages appear in the chat and the unread count stays next to it. You can mute for 8 hours, 1 week or Always.
If I mute someone on WhatsApp, do I still get calls?
WhatsApp's page says you can mute calls and messages for a chat, and shows separate Messages and Calls switches for groups. For a one-to-one chat it shows a single Mute option and doesn't say whether a call from that person still rings, so test it before relying on it.
If I mute someone's status on WhatsApp, will they know?
WhatsApp now calls this Hide. Its help page says hiding or unhiding someone's status doesn't affect their ability to see yours, and it mentions no notice to them. The hidden status goes to the Hidden updates section of your Updates tab, and expires after 24 hours.
How do I unmute someone on WhatsApp?
On Android, open the chat, tap its name, tap Notifications and turn Mute off. On iPhone, tap Muted, then Unmute. To unhide a status, open Hidden updates in the Updates tab, tap and hold the status and tap Unhide. WhatsApp's pages describe no notice to the other person for either.
Muting changes what your phone does, not what the other person sees. If you want a whole team to see the messages a muted phone would miss, get started with Tenashi.