We’ve all been there – stuck in an active WhatsApp chat, being bombarded by notifications and updates that don’t concern us, wishing we could leave without anyone knowing or noticing.
Thankfully, after years of that being impossible, WhatsApp now makes it possible to get out of one of its group chats without necessarily making a big statement. Here are all the details.
How to silently leave a WhatsApp group
The good news is that you don’t now have to do anything special to leave a group quietly on WhatsApp – it’s the same process as leaving in any other way.
So, there are two processes you can follow, and we’ve laid out each below.
- Firstly, from within a chat, these are the steps:
- Tap on the name of the chat at the top of the display
- Scroll down to the end of the page that comes up
- Tap Exit Group
- When prompted, confirm your decision. That message should let you know that only admins in the group will be notified
If, on the other hand, you want to do this from the main page on WhatsApp where all your chats are listed, follow these steps:
- Find the chat you want to leave in the list
- On iOS, swipe left on the chat to expose the “… More” button appears, then tap on it. On Android, long press on the group
- Hit Exit Group on the next menu
- Again, confirm your decision if the message tells you that only admins will be notified that you’ve left
That’s it – you’re now out of the group and home free, without making too much of a fuss, unless the group has loads of admins.
Bear in mind that another way to quieten these groups down is to archive the chat, and you can see the option to do just that from the same sub-menus that the above steps will have opened up.
This is a little less permanent since you can always access and view these chats, and indeed respond to them since you’ll still look from the outside like an active member of them.