In order to bring more privacy to WhatsApp, Meta is currently working on the possibility of locking chats on instant messaging. The social media giant appears to be aiming to keep WhatsApp chats out of the wrong hands, helping users protect their most private conversations on the messenger.
Meta has introduced many new features over the past two years to bring more privacy to the platforms. For example, it introduced disappearing messages in WhatsApp to give users more control over when they want their messages automatically deleted. It basically lets you set a timer for deleting messages: you can set it to 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days.
By providing the ability to lock chats, Meta wants to add an extra layer of privacy protection to the instant chat messenger. WABetainfo spotted the feature on WhatsApp Android app. And according to the description provided by the website, this will allow users to lock specific chats using their fingerprint or passcode. Once the chats are locked, they can only be accessed with the user’s fingerprint or passcode.
In addition to being able to prevent people from reading text messages from your private chats, locking chats also ensures that the media and files you receive aren’t automatically saved to the device’s gallery. This feature will also likely be available for WhatsApp for iOS, Windows, and Web.
The chat lock feature for WhatsApp is currently in development and not available to beta testers. The company will first introduce the feature to WhatsApp beta testers and then to the general public. However, we don’t know when Meta will bring this feature to beta testers or the general public.
Meanwhile, Microsoft recently launched a new WhatsApp app on Windows 11. The app is available for download from the Microsoft Store.