WhatsApp is going to let you organise archived chats better and we could not be happier

From now on if you archive a chat it is going to remain archived even if you get a new message from that contact. This declutters your WhatsApp inbox and keeps it that way.

WhatsApp is going to help you clear out the clutter from your inboxes.  (Bloomberg)

Facebook's messaging app WhatsApp lets you archive chats which is a great feature. It helps you clear out the unimportant chats from the line-up and keeps the inbox clean so as you can focus on the important messages. However, despite archiving the chat from a particular account which might be inundating you with good morning messages and forwards from WhatsApp University, every time there is a new message, it would turn right back in your inbox. And it is both annoying and tedious to archive messages every day. This is about to change. From today onwards, both on Android and iOS, WhatsApp is making it easier to keep just the important messages in your inbox and deprioritise the ones that are not. 

WhatsApp is rolling out new settings for archived chats that will give users more control over the inbox, and there are also added features that will help you organise your Archived Chats folder. As WhatsApp said in its announcement, users wanted their archived texts to remain in the Archived Chats folder instead of it moving back to the main folder when a new message arrives. The new Archived Chats settings will ensure that any message thread that has been archived will now stay in the Archived Chats folder even if a new message is sent on the thread. Archived Chats will remain archived unless you manually “unarchive” them. 

You can archive and unarchive chats any time you want. What this essentially does is that it keeps your main message folder clutter-free and you can focus on the messages you need to focus on. Most of us use WhatsApp for both work and personal messages, so this is a handy feature to have. 

How to archive or unarchive a chat or group

The archive chat feature allows you to hide an individual or group chat from your chats. Please remember that archiving a chat doesn't delete the chat or back it up to your SD card. An archived individual or group chat will stay archived when you receive a new message from that individual or group chat unless you manually change it. You will also not receive notifications for any of these archived chats unless you are mentioned in it or someone replied to something you have sent there.

How to archive an individual or group chat -

- Open WhatsApp and long press on the chat you want to archive. 

- This will open up options for you to mark the chat as unread, archive it, or delete it. You can archive an individual or group chat from here. 

How to archive all chats -

- In the Chats tab, click in “More” and then go to “Settings”. 

 - Tap on “Chats”, go to “Chat history”, and then click on “Archive all chats”. 

How to view archived individual or group chats

- Scroll to the top of the “Chats” screen.

- Tap on “Archived”.  The number next to Archived will indicate how many archived individual or group chats have unread messages. You can check them all here. 

How to unarchive an individual or group chat

- Scroll to the top of the “Chats” screen.

- Tap on “Archived”.

- Tap and hold the individual or group chat you want to unarchive.

- Next, tap on “Unarchive” at the top of the screen.

Alternative archive settings

To change the default settings so archived chats unarchive when new messages are received and remove “Archived Chats” from showing up on the top of your chats list - 

- In the “Chats” tab, click on “More” and go to “Settings”. 

- Tap on Chats.

- Turn off “Keep chats archived”.