By Nandita
WhatsApp has launched a new feature. If you have an iphone or an android mobile, you can use the new Chat Lock feature on your WhatsApp. This new feature essentially creates a secure folder for you to keep certain chats hidden. You can lock and unlock these chats with your fingerprint.
The Chat Lock feature of WhatsApp is a new privacy feature, which essentially creates a separate ‘locked chats’ folder in your chat list, which is very similar to your archived chats. In this folder, whatever chats you decide to keep locked will be stored and they would not appear in your chat list. This ‘locked chats’ folder can be opened only with your device password or biometric authentication, such as your fingerprint or face lock. Besides, the contents of the messages also won’t appear in your notifications either.
Announced by Meta CEO, Mark Zukerberg, the new ‘Chat Lock’ feature will let you keep your ‘intimate conversations’ in a secure folder that only you can access. This newly added privacy feature will keep your chats more secure and will also hide the content of the locked chats in notifications. This feature was first implemented in beta, and now, all users of both Android and iOS can use it.
As far as the question of using this feature is concerned, it is very easy to use. You will find the chat lock feature in the chat info section. If you cannot see it, please make sure that your WhatsApp is updated to the latest Android version 2.23.11.12. However, the update is yet to roll out for iPhone users. If you have the latest version installed on your Android device, you can follow the following steps to activate the WhatsApp chat lock:-
- Update your WhatsApp.
- If there’s a particular chat that you want to lock and then open it, go to the ‘info’ section, scroll down and click the ‘chat lock’ option.
- Then, you will get a prompt to lock the chat with your fingerprint. After you perform the task, the chat will move to the secure folder in the app.
- Whenever you want to open the chat, you can do so in a very easy manner by just tapping on the folder. Then, select your chat and unlock it with your fingerprint.
By using these steps, you can easily use chat lock feature on WhatsApp. WhatsApp, run by Meta is also planning to add more options for this feature in the coming months. One of these is the ability to lock chats for companion devices and to create a custom password for your chats. In this way, you can use a unique password that is different from the one you use for your phone.
Ridhi Jain