Works well to recover some space for the chat window. Only a thin vertical line remains on top of the chat where the edge of the left panel used to be.

Also, the screenshots seem to be out of date. The hide button is now a button revealed on hovering over the right edge of the contact list. I thought it was not working at first, because there was no "crossed-out eye" icon in the left panel as is shown in the screenshots.

Amazing! it's incredibly that WhatsApp itself don't prove an option like that. Was useful to me for show chats on class or conferences without risk my privacy. Totally recommended!

Thank you. So helpful to keep focus on the message being read/written.

Any chance of collapsing the left panel, too, please? https://github.com/ranmerc/whatsapp-contact-panel-hider/issues/1