How to go offline on messenger services when online

When you use WhatsApp, Telegram or any messenger service, you generally disable data if you don’t want to receive messages. But this will affect all services that use data. For instance, you may not receive tweets or emails.

There is an easier way out, at least in Android mobiles. You can keep the data on and at the same time prevent WhatsApp or Telegram from getting messages.

Just go to Apps under settings menu. Scroll down to the app you would like to stop using briefly. Select the app and click on Force Stop. For instance, if you don’t want to get messages in WhatsApp, select the app under Settings - Apps and click on Force Stop.

Now, the app will stop working and you will not receive messages in the app. But you will be able to continue to use other messaging and data dependent services.

When you are ready to receive messages again, just open the app as usual. The app will start working again and you will start getting messages.

This also works for emails. For example, if you don’t want to receive emails from office for some time, go to the email app (example: Outlook) under Settings - Apps and select Force Stop.

But remember, if you open the email client, the ‘Force Stop’ will stop working and you will start getting the emails.