Mute the chat. In your chats, swipe it to the left and tap the bell. Their messages still arrive, but your phone doesn’t tell you about them.
Mute a chat
- Tap the speech bubble at the top of Home.
- Swipe the chat to the left.
- Tap the bell.
Or from inside the chat: tap their name at the top, tap Mute, and switch on Messages. It says Their messages arrive without a notification.
What muting does
- Their messages still come in, with no notification.
- The chat doesn’t add to the number on the speech bubble.
- They aren’t told.
To unmute, swipe the chat and tap the bell again, or switch Messages off.
Mute their posts too
The same sheet has Posts. Switch it on, and their posts stay out of your feeds. They aren’t told, and you still follow each other.
To stop notifications for every chat, go to Settings → Notifications and switch off Messages.