How to leave – or silence – an annoying group chat
I AM not sure how things work in your family, but my extended family likes to text.
Every so often, I find myself in the middle of a big old group conversation.
You know the kind, where someone has something to share and lets 15 people know all at once via text.
Then, the inevitable happens – the replies.
Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Sometimes those dings last all evening and into the next day.
Depending on who is included, sometimes at least one recipient will issue a plea to end the replies for the night for the sake of early risers.
I know I’m not the only one who wants the dings to end. A friend was lamenting on Facebook about how to get himself out of a group chat that had taken a nasty political turn.
The solution depends on whether you use an iphone or Android.
iphone
If you’re an iphone user, and the rest of your group chatters are also using iphones, the fix is an easy one.
In the group chat window, touch the top of the page where all the chat participants are shown. This will drop down a few icons, including a small circle with a lower-case i that stands for information.
Touch the information icon to see details about the group chat. At the bottom of the details page is a link to Leave the Conversation. This is your ticket out.
The conversation will continue without you. You can only leave if there are at least four participants in the chat.
If there are fewer than four participants or any non-iphone users in your chat, you can’t just leave.
Your only chance for peace will be to go to the same Information page for the chat, but this time you’re looking for the button to Hide Alerts. This will silence all notifications for the chat. You’ll still receive the messages.
Android
In the group chat, look at the top right of the screen and press the three dots to bring up an options menu. You are looking for Notifications, which is either in this menu or found by following a link for Details.
If you see a bell icon, tap it to turn off notifications.
There are multiple messaging apps for Android, so not all phones will have the same options.
But muting notifications will at least let you get some sleep.
Finally, if you really don’t know how or why you were included in a group chat, you can take the nuclear option and block every number individually. It isn’t pretty, but it’ll get the job done. –