WhatsApp Chats Can Now Be Password Protected

There are many reasons why you want to protect individual chats from the eyes of others. These can be partners or children who should not see professional channels or other sensitive content. WhatsApp has therefore introduced a function with which you can protect individual chats.

Messenger belonging to Meta has been working on this functionality for several months, but now it has been officially presented and will also be distributed via an update. We are talking about the so-called chat lock, which is intended to offer additional protection for those conversations that others should not see.

Locked by password or biometrics

A locked chat is moved to its own folder. Only the owner of the smartphone can access this area, either with the device password or using biometric data such as a fingerprint. In addition, the content of the chat is automatically hidden in the notifications, even if other WhatsApp previews are activated.

According to WhatsApp, this feature is particularly useful for those users “who sporadically share their phone with other family members, or for situations where someone else is holding the phone while a special chat message comes in.” The chats can also be blocked temporarily.

All of this can be done by tapping on the respective contact or name, where the “Block” option can then be selected. Groups can also be hidden from the eyes of curious people in this way.

WhatsApp continues: “Over the next few months, we plan to add several more options for chat locking, such as enabling locking for companion devices or creating a custom password for your chats so that you use a different password than your phone can.”