Managing your LinkedIn inbox and keeping your messages private is an important part of maintaining your professional online presence. Here are some tips on how to hide your LinkedIn messages and control who can see your conversations.
Why Would You Want to Hide LinkedIn Messages?
There are a few key reasons why you may want to hide or archive LinkedIn messages:
- Keep sensitive conversations private – You may have confidential business or work-related messages that you don’t want others to see.
- Reduce clutter – Hiding old or irrelevant messages can declutter your inbox.
- Manage professional image – You may want to archive messages that don’t align with the professional brand you want to portray.
- Avoid distraction – Hiding messages can help you focus on current conversations and priorities.
How to Hide Messages on LinkedIn
Archive Individual Messages
To hide a specific message on LinkedIn:
- Open the message thread you want to archive.
- Click on the “More” icon (3 dots) at the top right of the message window.
- Select “Archive” to hide the message from your inbox.
Archived messages can still be found by searching your archived messages, but they won’t show up in your general inbox.
Mute Message Threads
Muting a message thread will keep it out of your main inbox, but keep it accessible in your archived messages. To mute a thread:
- Open the message thread you want to mute.
- Click “More” (3 dots icon).
- Select “Mute notifications” to stop getting notifications.
You can unmute threads any time to resume getting notifications.
Delete Messages
If you want messages completely removed from your inbox and archives, you can permanently delete them:
- Open the message thread.
- Click “More” (3 dots icon).
- Select “Delete” to permanently remove the messages.
Deleted messages cannot be recovered, so only use this if you’re sure you no longer need the message thread.
How to Hide LinkedIn Messages from Your Connections
In addition to managing your own inbox, you can control which of your connections are able to see and send you messages on LinkedIn.
Adjust Messaging Settings
To change who can message you:
- Go to your LinkedIn account Settings.
- Under “Communications”, select “Message settings”.
- Adjust the toggles to set who can send you messages:
- All LinkedIn members – Anyone can message you (default setting)
- Only people you follow and those in your network – Limits unsolicited messages
- No one – Prevents any messages unless you initiate contact
Remove Connections
The most targeted way to prevent someone from messaging you is to remove them from your connections.
- Go to their profile and click “More” next to the blue “Connect” button.
- Select “Remove connection”.
- Confirm you want to remove the connection.
Once removed, they will no longer be able to see your full profile or send messages unless you re-connect.
How to Prevent Specific Connections from Seeing Messages
You may want to hide certain message threads from specific connections, while keeping them visible to others. Here are two ways to do this:
Change Audience When Posting
Whenever you send a new message, you can change the audience to limit who can see it.
- In the message window, click the gear icon next to the Send button.
- Under audience selector, choose “Connections except” and enter names to exclude.
- Send your message normally.
The specified connections will not be able to view that message thread.
Block Connections
Blocking stops someone from viewing your profile or posts. To block a connection:
- Go to their profile.
- Click the “More” icon next to the message button.
- Select “Block” to confirm blocking them.
Now they will be unable to see your messages, profile, posts, or search for you on LinkedIn.
How to View Archived LinkedIn Messages
If you need to refer back to archived LinkedIn messages and conversations, you can dig them up in a few ways:
Search for Archived Messages
- Click the message icon to open your LinkedIn inbox.
- At the top, change the dropdown from “Inbox” to “Archived”.
- Use the search bar to search for keywords, names, etc.
- This will display archived message threads matching your search.
View Archived Messages by Sender
- Again, switch to your “Archived” messages view.
- On the left sidebar, click “All messages”.
- This will sort your archived messages by sender.
- Browse the list to find archived messages from specific connections.
Recover Deleted Messages
If you accidentally deleted a message thread completely, there is unfortunately no direct way to recover or view those deleted messages on LinkedIn.
Your only option may be to export your full LinkedIn data archive, which includes deleted messages from the last 90 days. You can then search your data archive files to try to locate the deleted thread.
Best Practices for Managing LinkedIn Messages
Here are some top tips for maintaining your LinkedIn inbox:
- Archive stale conversations – Keep your inbox focused by archiving old threads you no longer need open access to.
- Stay organized – Use LinkedIn Labels to categorize different types of incoming messages.
- Adjust notifications – Limit notifications to prevent message overload.
- Review settings – Check who can message you and customize as needed for your preferences.
- Export data – Download an archive of your account data including messages in case you ever need it.
Conclusion
Keeping certain LinkedIn messages private while maintaining your other conversations is crucial for a clean inbox and professional online presence. Follow the steps above to take control of your message settings, hide message threads from connections, and archive messages for your eyes only.
