Whatsapp has become an integral part of our daily lives almost a decade after it first launched. The service helps us connect with friends, family, and even businesses. All you need to sign up is a phone number, and you’re good to go. So, since your identity on Whatsapp is your phone number, you might end up getting messages from unknown folks too. To avoid those spam, Whatsapp provides two options, mute and block, which work in different ways.
Blocking is a harsh but straightforward way to stop unknown and unsolicited messages. When you block a contact, you cannot have any further conversation with them. This is so because block restricts all kinds of communication with that party like direct chats, voice calls, and video calls.
Muting means silencing the notifications that are received from a particular conversation. So to check what the mute contact has sent you, you need to check the contact’s muted chat in WhatsApp. This doesn’t block the number from contacting you via voice or video calls and direct messages; you just won’t be notified when they do.
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You can block an individual, but you cannot block a group. Unfortunately, you can only exit the group for avoiding unwanted messages or mute the group for a maximum period of up to a year. While applying this feature, you have to keep these two things in mind.
- When you block an individual, group chat with them remains unaffected. It means that you cannot chat personally. But if you are in the same group, then you will see each other’s messages.
- The same goes for the process of muting. When you mute an individual chat, it does not affect the group chat that you share. You need to mute the group so that you do not receive notifications. Similarly, when you mute the group, it does not affect the personal chat.
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When you block an individual contact, you cannot view their last seen, profile picture and online status but you can when the person is muted.
Blocking someone means cutting all means of communication on Whatsapp. You cannot make or receive video or voice calls. However, the blocked person can contact you from outside Whatsapp. When a person is muted, you can still receive calls. Surprisingly muting will not mute the call notification.
Nothing will happen to the earlier conversations that took place between you and the blocked person unless you delete them manually.
Also read: How to delete a Whatsapp group?
No, nothing happens. The contact details remain as it is — both on your phone as well as Whatsapp.
No, the other party wouldn’t be aware if you block or mute them.
Of course. You can block a muted person. You can also mute a blocked contact however there is no point in doing so because they can either way not communicate with you.
When you unmute a chat, in the future, you will receive notifications. When you unblock a person, you will get new messages from it; however, you won’t receive those messages which were sent while the sender was blocked.
So this is all that blocking and muting contact can do. Before choosing any, understand what you exactly want and then take action because actions are louder than words.
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