How do people keep a work and personal chat account open at the same time?

You are not the only one, this is one of the most common frustrations out there. The core problem is that most phone apps bind to one account per install, so you are stuck logging in and out. A few things that genuinely help, in rough order of effort: Cheapest fix: use the web versions for your "secondary" set. Keep personal on the phone apps, and pin work WhatsApp Web, Slack, and Gmail as separate windows on the laptop. You stop logging things out because the two worlds live on two devices. Better fix: put everything into one desktop app that holds multiple accounts side by side, so work WhatsApp and personal WhatsApp are both signed in at once with a single unread list. That is the whole reason unified inboxes exist and it is exactly this pain they solve. It also stops the browser tab pile up. On Android, the built in "dual apps" / "app cloning" works for one or two apps but gets clunky past that, so I would not lean on it as the main answer. Whatever you pick, the goal is the same: never log anything out again. Once you are not context switching every hour the whole thing calms down.

Can confirm the top answer, worked on my end too.

Good to know, was about to reinstall for no reason.

If all else fails, log out and back in, it refreshes a surprising amount.

Been meaning to ask this for ages, so thanks.

Same here, glad someone finally asked this one.

Honestly the phone is the weak spot. Android Dual Apps works, iPhone basically forces you to switch. I do the split on my laptop instead where both accounts can stay open at once.

On desktop this is easy, apps like Spanbox let you add the same messenger twice as two accounts running side by side, so work and personal are both live in one window. On mobile, Dual Apps (Android) is the built-in trick.

Adding to the accepted answer: results vary a bit by phone and OS version.