Mute function has disappeared in stock Text Message app, Android Messages

[fju2112]

I have two confirmed sources (one on this forum, the other myself) that the "mute conversation" feature in Android Messages is indeed gone due to a recent update.

What is this horse***t?

Why would anyone on the Android team decide to do away with a perfectly useful feature like muting a conversation - one of the most basic functions of any messenger app? This has been useful to me in Hangouts, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger for years. Has anyone managed to get reasoning out of anyone at Google on this, I haven't seen anything and have searched daily for a few weeks now?

 

[fju2112]

and yes, I have disable updates in the Play Store so I can keep my precious feature - but still - it's a headscratcher as to why this was done at all, and I hope we don't see this in other apps, and I even hope we see the feature come back in a subsquent update.

 

[djrakowski]

I'm running Android Messages, and it's up-to-date, and I still have the ability to mute conversations. Open a conversation, tap the Settings menu, then People & options, then turn off notifications.

 

[fju2112]

Thank you for the workaround!

However, all it is, is a workaround. It's a lot more cumbersome to mute notifications now than it was when there was a "mute" icon to toggle after highlighting an individual conversation from the main messages screen. There's still real estate in the updated app to have that feature, so why was it removed?

I get there's still a reason to have the additional menu within each contact, as one can toggle lock screen notifications, but the much easier and user-friendly mute feature in past versions is much preferred.