The number of contacts in every phone who still regularly send SMS is becoming smaller and smaller. WhatsApp has (almost) completely taken over this role, making the app much more versatile. But as useful as WhatsApp is, there are also disadvantages, and they are sometimes subtle. For example, the system can blur the lines between your professional and personal lives if you’re not careful.

WhatsApp has become an integral part of digital communication and has developed from a messaging app into a platform with many more options than just sending messages. It has now become a very practical and versatile system, which is why many people use it. According to the data platform Statista, WhatsApp has no fewer than two billion active users every month. However, many people also include numerous accounts from their professional environment among their contacts. This can sometimes make it difficult to maintain a comfortable balance between this world and the more protected private environment.

But what about the others?

Of course, there are still communication platforms in the world and many people undoubtedly have one of them installed on their phone or tablet. The big difference between apps like Slack or Teams and WhatsApp is that the former is much more exclusively connected to the work atmosphere.

You are usually logged in there with your work email address, and with WhatsApp you are logged in with your (often) only phone number. Additionally, you can have multiple Teams or Slack accounts and log them out or activate them separately if necessary. On WhatsApp, it’s – once again – your only phone number that calls the shots. This one phone number also applies to all groups you belong to within the app.

You may be able to work with alternatives like Telegram or Signal to accommodate your professional contacts, but then the other parties will also have to put in the same effort. The European Digital Markets Act could easily force big players like WhatsApp to open the door to smaller competitors, but that doesn’t mean the former will immediately follow suit. Although it seems that WhatsApp has already opened this door a little.

Tools

For people who also maintain professional contacts in this way, this can be a difficult balancing act. Meta has since released a beta version for multiple accounts on the same device, but this is far from a general feature at this point.

Not every company has the same rules or guidelines, even when it comes to this topic. When it’s entirely your own decision, it can be difficult to not answer that one message or video call. Because what harm can this extraordinary and quick conversation do, right? However, there’s a good chance you’ll make this argument more often and before you know it, you’ll be helping that one customer off a sunny beach.

Fortunately, there are a number of things that can increase this threshold:

• You can mute your notifications in a conversation, for a group or for an individual contact, and without the knowledge of those you are talking to. When you open the app, you’ll still see notifications, but you’ll no longer receive notifications, which reduces responsiveness somewhat. You can set this using the familiar three points in every conversation.

• Another option is to disable read receipts privacy in the general settings of the app. During one-on-one conversations, the other party no longer sees blue ticks. Your contact person does not know whether you have read a message or not. Unfortunately, this is a general feature and therefore applies to all of your contacts. It takes away your option. If you turn it on again, the checkmarks next to your messages will remain gray for a while while it is turned off. This way, your contacts will see that read receipts have been turned off if they are paying attention and know what that means. Maybe it’s not unimportant to keep it in mind.

• Another function that protects you a little more is that it is no longer displayed when you were last online or when that was actually the case. This also applies in reverse, so you can no longer see it in your contacts. This setting makes it possible to target specific accounts. This is extremely interesting in this context.

Sometimes there are also working WhatsApp groups. This could be for the annual Secret Santa, but it could also be for a project. Meta sometimes tinkers with the notification settings in these groups. Currently only admins can see when someone leaves the group. So always check first if you are considering joining such a group. Just think about whether it’s okay for the person watching you go. If it’s a project, make sure everything was completed properly.

You decide

Well, that’s all well and good with these tricks and tools. Ultimately, you should be able to decide for yourself what is okay and what is not. The limit lies somewhere different for everyone. It is especially important that you indicate where it is located yourself. This applies to employees, but actually also to one-person companies or owners of a larger company. Your peace of mind is important.

An important additional factor when dealing with work-life balance for employees is of course the rules or guidelines at their workplace. Is this at the top of your employer’s list? Or does he or she see your private time as working time, occasionally interrupted by some free time? Sometimes availability is subtly encouraged or expected, but not with these direct words.

In this case, the tools we have provided here specifically for WhatsApp are more of a way out. We can therefore only recommend that you decide for yourself what a healthy balance is for you.

Since April 1st the ‘Right to disconnect. These agreements must also be set out in a company collective employment agreement or in the work regulations.