Conversa Labs Help Center
en
Language
pt_BR Portuguese (Brazil) en English es Spanish

Ignore list and contact sync on WhatsApp Web

Open in
View as Markdown Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude
Conversa Labs

Conversa Labs

Last updated on Jul 27, 2026

Overview

Three tools give you full control over what a WhatsApp Web inbox imports. Two of them live on the Features tab and are independent — they are different contact-creation paths, and turning one off does not turn the other off:

  • Sync contacts (Features tab): imports the member list of the groups and communities the number belongs to as platform contacts. It ships off by default — no member list is imported unless you ask for it. When enabled, contacts are created with their real name and phone; community participants with hidden data are created as a "Private contact" and completed automatically once their number becomes known.
  • Create contacts for group/community senders (Features tab): controls the other path — the person who sends a message inside a group or community. It ships on, so no already connected inbox changes behavior. If participants keep becoming contacts even with "Sync contacts" off, this is the option you need to uncheck. With it off the message still arrives and the bubble still shows the sender's name and phone number — only the contact is not created.
  • Ignore list (Ignored tab): numbers, groups and channels that must never create a contact, conversation or message on this inbox — nor receive outbound sends. Perfect for announcement groups, bot numbers and channels outside your support flow.

Prerequisites

  • Administrator profile.
  • An existing WhatsApp Web inbox (paired or not).

Step by step

Control group contact import

  1. Open Settings → Inboxes → your WhatsApp Web inbox → Features.
  2. Toggle Sync contacts (member list).
  3. Toggle Create contacts for group/community senders.
  4. Click Save changes.

To keep no group participant in your contact list, turn both off.

Ignore numbers, groups and channels

  1. Open the inbox Ignored tab.
  2. To add one entry, type the value in the Add field — the type is auto-detected:
    • Number/contact: 5511999999999, +55 11 99999-9999 or 5511999999999@s.whatsapp.net
    • Group: 120363043211123456@g.us
    • Channel: 120363144038483540@newsletter
  3. To add many at once, click Import: paste the list (one per line, or comma-separated) or upload a .txt/.csv file. The report shows how many were created, duplicated and invalid (with a per-line reason).

Settings & options

  • Types: each entry gets a badge — Contact, Group or Channel.
  • Search and filter: search by number/ID and filter by type.
  • Removal: delete entries individually or select several and use Delete selected.

Use cases

  • Keep announcement groups and communities from generating thousands of irrelevant contacts.
  • Block bot/spam numbers before they create conversations.
  • Keep news channels out of the support flow.

Tips, limits & best practices

  • Blocking works both ways: inbound messages from an ignored entry are dropped and outbound sends to it are refused with a clear error.
  • Detection works even when WhatsApp delivers the event with a LID address (anonymous identifier): the platform resolves the LID to the real number automatically.
  • Adding a rule does not delete existing contacts and conversations — it only blocks new traffic. Remove manually anything you don't want to keep.
  • Ignoring a community does not ignore its sub-groups — add each group you want blocked.
  • Both contact options apply only to groups and communities. One-to-one chats, channels and status keep creating contacts as usual — without one the conversation would have no owner.
  • Turning Create contacts for group/community senders off does not delete contacts already created: it only prevents new ones. Remove manually anything you don't want to keep.
  • With no participant contact, the click-through to a profile from a group bubble goes away and rules that depend on the sending contact in a group conversation find nobody. To block a specific person, use the Ignored tab.

Troubleshooting

  • An entry was rejected on import: check the format — numbers need country code + area code (8 to 15 digits); groups end with @g.us; channels with @newsletter.
  • Messages from an ignored number still appear: confirm the rule was created on this inbox (the list is per inbox) and the value matches the real number with country code.
  • Group contacts keep being created: Sync contacts only covers the member list. Whoever sends a message in the group arrives through a different path — also uncheck Create contacts for group/community senders on the Features tab.

See also