How to Temporarily Deactivate WhatsApp Account?

WhatsApp is a great communication tool but equally distracting as the temptation of opening its chat windows with every notification is irresistible. If you want to avoid this attention-grabbing tool during your project, your holidays, or because of its controversial privacy policy without a complete uninstallation, here are some handy tips on how to do it. Let’s begin with the procedure – How to Temporarily Deactivate WhatsApp Account.

Simple Methods to temporarily deactivate a WhatsApp account

Although there is no specific way to temporarily deactivate a WhatsApp account with a single click, there are a couple of procedures with which you can achieve your desired result depending on your situation:

Method # 1: By Force Stopping WhatsApp 

The most straightforward way to get rid of WhatsApp temporarily is by Force Stopping the application, for which you need to follow the below steps:

• Step # 1: Go to “All Apps” on your mobile.

• Step # 2: Search for “Settings” and open it by tapping.

• Step # 3: Go to “Apps Info” by tapping “Apps & Notifications” (Every phone has a different option for this, so you might need to search for it).

• Step # 4: Now search for “WhatsApp” and select it by tapping.

• Step # 5: Here, you will find three options “Open”, “Uninstall”, & “Force Stop”

• Step # 6: Click on the “Force Stop” icon to stop the application.

• Step # 7: This will stop WhatsApp immediately and remain deactivated unless you open it again.

Method # 2: By Turning off or blocking WhatsApp notifications

There is an old saying, “Out of sight out of mind,” similarly, if you do not want to be bothered by WhatsApp, the other way is to keep the notifications turned off. Let’s see how you can do this:

• Step # 1: Go to “All Apps” on your mobile.

• Step # 2: Search for “Settings” and open it by tapping.

• Step # 3: Go to Notification by tapping Apps & Notifications (Every phone has a different option for this, so you might need to search for it).

• Step # 4: From here, select “App Notifications.”

• Step # 5: Under “App Notifications,” locate “WhatsApp.”

• Step # 6: Once you have located the “WhatsApp,” turn off the slider in front of the show notification (different mobiles might have this option with the name “Don’t Show Notification,” all you need to enable this option).

• Step # 7: You can also mute WhatsApp calls by tapping “Additional settings in the app” or by directly going to the WhatsApp → settings → Notification and selecting the Ringtone to None under the Calls section.

In this way, WhatsApp won’t bother you with its infuriating sounds or messages, and you may feel like you do not have WhatsApp activated over your smartphone.

Method # 3: By Using Do Not Disturb option

Another feature that most Android phones offer nowadays is “Do Not Disturb,” which enables us to be more focused and progressive by disabling all kinds of irritating sounds from every app on your smartphone, including “WhatsApp.”

But what if your phone has an exception for WhatsApp as the  “Override Do Not Disturb” option from the “Notification category” is selected? 

The following steps have to be your course of action: 

• Step # 1: Go to “Settings” then “Apps & notifications”

• Step # 2: Select “Notifications”

• Step # 3: Now tap on “WhatsApp” to open its settings

• Step # 4: Here, you will see many settings, but the required setting will be available under “Call notifications,” so you have to press it.

• Step # 5: It will open the call notifications menu for WhatsApp

• Step # 6: Where you will see the “Override Do Not Disturb” option is enabled.

• Step # 7: All you need to do is disable this option, which will mute the notifications from WhatsApp that were previously enabled even when the “Do Not Disturb” is on.

Method # 4: By tweaking the mobile data usage permission

Many smartphones allow us to set the mobile data usage permission, by which we can control data usage of different mobile apps, such as WhatsApp, when they are not running in the foreground. It will not only limit unintentional mobile data consumption but also helps you to focus on your work, as WhatsApp will be sleeping in the background and won’t be active unless you open it.

To enable it, perform the following steps:

• Step # 1: Go to “Settings” and select “Network & Internet”

•     Step # 2: Locate the “Data Usage” option

• Step # 3: Select the “App data usage” from here

• Step # 4: Here, you will see a list of all the apps and their data usage

• Step # 5: Now, from here, tap on the “WhatsApp”

• Step # 6: You will find the “Background data” option with a slider; disable it by toggling.

This way, WhatsApp will not use the internet if it runs in the background and all the senders only get one tick on every sent message.

Method # 5: By sending an email to WhatsApp (Bonus Method)

There is another way by which you can deactivate WhatsApp temporarily. But remember you can only use this method in the unfortunate condition of a lost/stolen mobile phone. In this situation, all you need to do is write an email with the phrase “Lost/Stolen: Please deactivate my account” and “your phone number in the international format” within the email’s body and send it to the WhatsApp team.

The WhatsApp team will deactivate your account, which you can activate by getting a new Sim with the same number. Remember, WhatsApp can only be accessible by phone numbers on one device.

FAQs on Deactivating WhatsApp Account

Conclusion

No doubt, WhatsApp is a great tool to communicate with your family, friends, colleagues, or anyone else, but at times it grabs too much of our attention, due to which we want to deactivate it temporarily. In this article, we have round off some methods to disable a WhatsApp account without losing its data entirely.

You may also like our other post on WhatsApp – How to Download Videos from WhatsApp Web?