The popular instant messaging platform, WhatsApp has been on a roll as far as releasing new features to its app is concerned. Earlier, the platform rolled out a ‘mute forever’ option in chats, followed by an announcement for an upcoming disappearing messages feature. Yesterday, the app rolled out a new storage management tool to bulk delete files from your phone. Now, according to a report by WABetaInfo, the instant messaging app will soon get a Vacation Mode.
Reportedly, the Vacation mode feature has been under development for since 2018. In July 2020, there were reports that the IM platform had decided to shelve the feature, however, it was under development again in September. It has now been spotted on the latest beta version 2.20.206.2, hinting at an imminent roll out.
WhatsApp Vacation Mode: what is it?
WhatsApp Vacation Mode has been spotted in the latest beta version of the app
The WhatsApp Vacation Mode appears to be an extension of the mute forever option in chats. Currently, if you mute and archive it to get it out of the way, it still comes back to your main chat screen when a new message is received in that particular chat. This defies the purpose of archiving chats in the first place.
Now, WABetaInfo has spotted the new Vacation Mode banner within the latest beta update of the app. The banner reads, “Move chats you want to keep muted here” and “Chats with new messages won’t return to main chat list”. This is pretty self-explanatory, hinting that chats moved to the archive will remain archived even when new messages are received, and there won’t be any notifications as well.
However, in order for this to work, the Vacation Mode needs to be toggled on all the time. Moreover, with the Vacation Mode on, you’ll see an Archived option at the top of the chat list, while it currently appears at the bottom.