Free Chrome Extension

Hide the sidebar.
Focus on one chat.

One button collapses the entire WhatsApp Web sidebar — chat list, unread counts, contact names — so you can finish what you're doing without your inbox competing for attention.

Add to Chrome — it's free View source
Features Installation Usage Keyboard shortcut Privacy Changelog Privacy policy

What it does

Everything you need.
Nothing you don't.

A single-purpose tool built to do one thing cleanly and stay out of the way of everything else.

Works on every tab

Collapses identically whether you're on Chats, Status, Communities, or Settings. Switching tabs doesn't pop it back open.

Screen sharing ready

Press Alt+S before you share. Your inbox, contact names, and unread counts disappear instantly.

Zero permissions

Only requests access to web.whatsapp.com. Reads no messages. Talks to no servers. Nothing leaves your browser.

Keyboard shortcut

Alt+S toggles from anywhere on WhatsApp Web. Also listed in WhatsApp's own keyboard shortcuts modal (Ctrl+/).

Smooth animation

400ms eased collapse and expand. Respects your OS reduced-motion preference automatically.

Open source

MIT licensed. Every line of code is readable on GitHub. No obfuscation, no surprises.

Get started

Install in 30 seconds

1

Add from the Chrome Web Store

Click Add to Chrome on the store listing. No account required, nothing to sign up for.

2

Pin it to your toolbar

Click the puzzle icon 🧩 in Chrome's toolbar → find WA Web Sidebar Toggle → click the pin icon. This keeps it one click away.

3

Open WhatsApp Web

Go to web.whatsapp.com — the toggle button appears in the navigation rail automatically within a second.

4

Click the button or press Alt+S

The sidebar collapses. Press again to bring it back. That's the whole thing.

Prefer to install manually from source?

a

Clone or download the repo

git clone https://github.com/Muhammad-Aqib-Bashir/wa-web-sidebar-toggle.git

b

Open chrome://extensions

Enable Developer mode (toggle, top-right), click Load unpacked, select the folder containing manifest.json.

Usage

How to use it

The toggle button appears in WhatsApp's navigation rail — the narrow icon strip on the far left. It lives between the Communities button and the Settings button.

Click it once to collapse the sidebar. Click again to restore it. Your choice persists for the current browser session — reopening the tab starts fresh with the sidebar visible.

If you're on a non-English WhatsApp, the button still appears in the same position. The extension uses structural layout detection, not English-specific labels, to place itself.

Keyboard shortcut

Keep your hands on the keyboard

The shortcut works anywhere on web.whatsapp.com — you don't need to click the button.

Alt + S
Toggle the sidebar from anywhere on WhatsApp Web

The shortcut is also listed in WhatsApp's own built-in keyboard reference — press Ctrl + / inside WhatsApp Web to see it alongside WhatsApp's native shortcuts.

Privacy

No data. Full stop.

Nothing leaves your browser

No analytics, no telemetry, no servers. This extension has no network requests of any kind. It cannot read your messages, contacts, or any WhatsApp content.

web.whatsapp.com
Required to inject the toggle button into the page. The extension runs on this domain only, nowhere else.
storage
Stores only whether you've dismissed the "pin this extension" reminder. One boolean. Never read by any website or third party.

Read the full privacy policy →

Changelog

What's changed

v0.2.0
Jul 2025

Popup, welcome page & CI/CD

  • AddedToolbar popup with GitHub, reviews, Upwork, Freelancer, and coffee links
  • AddedOne-time pin reminder banner in the popup
  • AddedWelcome page on first install
  • AddedAlt+S shortcut appears in WhatsApp's own keyboard shortcuts modal
  • AddedAutomated CI + release pipeline via GitHub Actions
  • FixedStray chat-list header bar now hidden alongside the panel
  • FixedTooltip rebuilt as body-level element to escape clipping ancestor
v0.1.0
Jun 2025

Reliable toggle across all tabs

  • AddedToggle button in WhatsApp's navigation rail
  • AddedAlt+S keyboard shortcut
  • AddedSmooth 400ms eased animation
  • FixedReplaced unreliable #side targeting with structural nav-rail detection — now works on Chats, Status, Communities, and Settings
  • FixedMutationObserver + interval keeps state applied after WhatsApp re-renders
v0.0.0
Jun 2025

Initial scaffold

  • Addedmanifest.json, content.js, content.css, icons

Ready to focus?

Free, open source, takes 30 seconds to install. No account, no tracking, no nonsense.

Add to Chrome — It's free View on GitHub