WhatsApp update lets users 'pin' conversations, allowing people to ignore annoying chats

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WhatsApp has launched a new feature that lets you prioritise certain conversations over others.

As its name suggests, pinned chats lets you pin up to three contacts and groups to the top of your WhatsApp conversation list.

That also makes it easier to ignore notifications from the conversations that you aren’t especially interested in, no matter how active they get.

WhatsApp's existing mute feature is handy, but only fixes part of the problem.

Muting busy group conversations allows you to dodge the constant barrage of notifications, but those chats will still jump right back to the top of your conversation list when any of the members sends a message.

Pinned chats lets you sweep them out of the way, and keeps them there.

The feature has started rolling out to Android users, who should be able to download the update within the next few days.

It isn’t available on iOS yet, but is likely to come to Apple’s mobile platform at some point in the near future.

“With pinned chats, you never have to worry about scrolling through the long list of conversations to text your family members or your best friend,” says WhatsApp.

“Users can now pin up to three of the most important group or individual chats to the top of their chat list for easy access – simply tap and hold a chat, and then tap the pin icon at the top of your screen.”

Tapping and holding a chat also lets you mute or archive it, and it’s also really easy to unpin a pinned conversation.

The messaging app is also testing an “unsend” feature, which will let you recall a message within a certain timeframe, after you’ve hit send.