I made three easy iPhone changes to slash my WhatsApp addiction

OUR phones are there to make life easier, so why do I feel a slave to mine?

The constant barrage of notifications have put me on edge, always wondering what the latest alert is.

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And the main culprit is messages on WhatsApp, with just about every friend and family member available at the tap of a button.

That’s not forgetting the stream of groups.

I could just delete the app, of course, but then I’d go too far the other way and cut myself off completely.

As for screen time features – I haven’t found that particularly useful either, apart from telling me just how bad my addiction is.

So I decided to take drastic action – and the results have been truly liberating.

Turn off last seen on WhatsApp

My first problem is feeling pressured to respond to people.

Sometimes you just want to go in and tell someone you’re running late.

Yet everyone who’s messaged you can see you’ve been online and not responded to them.

If that plays on your mind like me, switch the last seen off, it helps.

Go to Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen and select Nobody.

Turn off read receipts on WhatsApp

I also found it helpful to switch off read receipts so that I can look at messages and not feel pressured to respond immediately.

This means no more blue ticks when a message is read, for both the sender and you.

You can switch read receipts off by going to Settings > Account > Privacy and switch the Read Receipts toggle off.

Turn off WhatsApp notifications

This was by far the biggest and most life changing move.

The worst problem I found, was being notified of messages.

It then plays on my mind that I have a message and compels me to go and have a look.

Turning notifications off means I only go on WhatsApp when I want to, not when a notification tells me to.

Dr Ben Carter from King’s College London, who has studied this area, wasn’t surprised about my problem.

“You don’t know when they’re going to arrive, you don’t know what they’re saying, so when you get one, you’re inquisitive, is this a positive, are you going to get a dopamine hit from it?

“So I’m totally not surprised if you switch them off, you’re not looking for that hit, it goes away.”

To turn notifications off, go to the main iPhone Settings and select Notifications.

Find WhatsApp from the list and turn the toggle next to Allow Notifications off.

Now hopefully you’ll feel freer from your phone.

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