How to Delete Any WhatsApp Contact

Manage your contacts more easily

By
Elise Moreau
Elise Moreau
Elise Moreau
Freelance Contributor
  • University of Ontario
  • George Brown College
Elise Moreau is a writer that has covered social media, texting, messaging, and streaming for Lifewire. Her work has appeared on Techvibes, SlashGear, Lifehack and others.
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Updated on January 1, 2022

What to Know

  • If you delete a contact through WhatsApp, that contact is also deleted from your device's contact list, and vice versa.
  • Go to Chats, tap Compose, tap the contact you want to delete, then tap their name at the top of the chat screen.
  • On iOS, tap Edit > Delete Contact. On Android, tap the three dots > View in address book > three dots > Delete.

If you want to keep your WhatsApp contacts to a minimum, or you simply just want to delete a single contact for whatever reason, it's easy to do so. You can delete as many contacts as you want, and they'll never know you deleted them because no notifications are sent to the contact when deleted.

You can also delete WhatsApp groups, which works a little differently, but it's not difficult once you know how to do it.

How to Delete a WhatsApp Contact on iOS or Android

If you delete a contact through WhatsApp, that contact is also deleted from your device's contact list, so be sure you want to delete the contact from both places before you go ahead. Keep in mind the opposite is true as well—if you delete a contact from your device's contact list, it is also be deleted from your WhatsApp contacts.

The process for deleting a WhatsApp contact differs just slightly between iOS and Android. Instructions are provided for both platforms, but screenshots are included for the iOS version only.

  1. Open the WhatsApp app on your iOS or Android device and tap Chats in the bottom menu.

  2. Tap the chat composer icon in the top right corner of the Chats screen to display the contact list.

    On iOS, the chat composer looks like a pencil inside a square. On Android, it looks like a very small message icon inside a circle.

  3. Scroll through your contact list or use the search function at the top to find the contact you want to delete.

  4. Tap the contact you want to delete to open a chat screen.

  5. At the top of the chat screen, tap the contact's name to go to their profile.

    Path to opening a chat in WhatsApp

  6. In the top right corner of the contact's profile, tap Edit (iOS) or the three vertical dots (Android).

  7. On iOS, tap Delete Contact at the bottom of the Edit Contact tab to delete the contact from both WhatsApp and your device's contacts.

    WhatsApp Edit Contact screen with Delete Contact highlighted

    Deleting a contact on iOS won't delete any chat history you had with them. You can delete your chat history from the Chats tab by swiping left on any particular chat, then tap More > Delete Chat > Delete Chat.

  8. On Android, tap View in address book > three vertical dots > Delete to delete them both from WhatsApp and your device's contacts.

    If you're deleting contacts on WhatsApp via the Android platform, you need to refresh your WhatsApp contacts to reflect the changes. Tap the chat composer icon > three vertical dots > Refresh. The deleted contact(s) should no longer appear in your contact list.

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