WhatsApp Mute vs Block: Know the difference

Quick Tips

• When you mute a person or group on WhatsApp, you won’t receive message notifications from them.
• Blocking someone on WhatsApp will stop all forms of communication with them.
• When muted, they can see your profile picture, status, last visit, etc. However, when they are blocked, you can’t see everyone’s activity.

What is blocking on WhatsApp

Blocking is a brutal way to stop someone’s messages. When you block a contact on WhatsApp, you cannot have a conversation with them because blocking restricts all types of communication: direct chats, voice calls and video calls.

How to block someone on WhatsApp

Go to the chat you want to block. Press the three dots icon in the upper right corner → More → Block. Faucet Block again to confirm the action.

Note: To unlock, repeat the steps and press Unblock. To view all your blocked contacts, go to WhatsApp Settings > Account > Confidentiality > Blocked contacts.

What is muted on WhatsApp

Mute is a user-friendly alternative to blocking. In simple terms, mute means turn off notifications. When you mute a chat, you will not receive an audio notification every time said contact messages you directly.

To check for new messages from that person, you will need to check the contact’s muted chat in WhatsApp.

How to mute someone on WhatsApp

Launch WhatsApp and open the chat you want to mute. Press the three dots icon → deactivate the notifications. In the pop-up window, select how long you want to turn off notifications and tap ALL RIGHT.

WhatsApp mute or blocked

	Mute	Block
Will you receive – Messages – Media – Calls (Audio/video)	Yes Yes Yes	No No No
Receive notifications for – Messages – Media – Calls	No No Yes	No No No
Can you send – Message – Call – Media	Yes Yes Yes	No No No
Last seen	Yes	No
Online Status	Yes	No
Profile picture	Yes	No
Status update	Yes	No

Groups and personal chats

Although you can mute personal chats and groups, you can only block individual chats. The blocking feature is not available for groups. You must leave the group to no longer receive messages from them.

There are two important things you need to remember when using these features:

1. When you block a personal chat, group chats with that person are not affected. This means that even if you can’t contact each other personally, the blocked contact can still send messages in common groups. Both can view each other’s messages in groups.

2. Likewise, you will receive notifications for the muted contact in group chats. Disabling them individually will have no effect on group chats. You must mute a group to turn off its notifications. And when you mute groups, it doesn’t change its members’ personal chat notifications.

What happens to WhatsApp calls

Blocking someone stops all WhatsApp communication with them, including calls. You cannot make or receive voice or video calls.

When you mute a chat, the muted contact can still call you. Interestingly, muting won’t turn off call notifications, only message notifications.

Note: Blocking is only limited to WhatsApp and does not apply to conversations or calls on other apps. The blocked person can still contact you outside of WhatsApp.

What happens to past conversations

When you block or mute someone, nothing happens to past conversations. These chats remain on WhatsApp unless you manually delete them.

What happens to last visit, online status and profile picture

When you block a contact, that person cannot see your last visit, profile picture, or online status while you are active on WhatsApp. However, the muted contact can see all these details.

Message Status

WhatsApp has three symbols to display message status. A single gray check mark means the message was sent but not delivered, two gray check marks indicate the message was delivered, and two blue check marks mean the message has been read.

When a blocked person sends you a message, they will only receive a single gray checkmark. Since you cannot send a message to a blocked contact, there is no message status for you.

Rather, the message status follows the normal rules for muted contacts. They will receive two gray checkmarks when a message is delivered and they will turn blue when you read the message.

What happens when you unblock or unmute

When you reactivate a discussion, you will be notified of future messages. When you unblock someone, you will receive new messages from them. However, you will not receive messages sent while the sender was blocked.

How to know if you’ve been blocked or muted

There is no way to know if you have been muted. But when it comes to blocking, even though there is no direct way to do this either, you can determine if you are blocked by several clues.

For example, if the person’s profile picture or online status is missing, or if messages always have a single gray checkmark, you should know something is wrong.

FAQ to Block or Mute Sound on WhatsApp

WhatsApp Muted or Blocked: Which Should You Choose?

Although both muting and blocking are used to avoid people, they are very different from each other. One is used simply to turn off notifications, and the other stops any form of communication from any contact on WhatsApp.

You may want to mute your family groups or distant loved ones who continue to send hello messages. On the other hand, use a block for your annoying ex, your unknown number, or brands that spam a lot.

Now that you know them both, choose your weapon wisely.