The new feature will make it possible to hide private conversations in a locked folder in the messaging app.
WhatsApp has announced that along with a major update, a new feature will be rolled out that makes it possible for them to create a locked folder into which they can keep their most secret chats.
The Chat Lock feature was recently announced by Meta, the app’s parent company.
The new secret chats feature will only be accessible to people who have provided a password or biometric identification such as a face or fingerprint scan. Any new messages will also be tucked away the phone or computer screen of the recipient so that they, too, will not allow bystanders to be able to see what is being shared or who is sending the messages.
“We believe this feature will be great for people who share their phones from time to time with a family member, or in moments where someone else is holding your phone at the exact moment an extra-special chat arrives,” wrote meta in the blog post it used to announce the major update for the WhatsApp messaging application. “Over the next few months, we’re going to be adding more options for Chat Lock, including locks for companion devices and creating a custom password for your chats so that you can use a unique password different from your phone’s.”
The new secret Chat Lock feature is already rolling out to over 2 billion users worldwide.
The secret chats feature is headed to all users around the world, as their applications receive the latest update.
“New locked chats in WhatsApp make your conversations more private,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a recent Facebook post. “They’re hidden in a password protected folder and notifications won’t show sender or message content.”
The announcement of the new major update to the app has arrived on the heels of growing concerns among the messaging application’s users regarding a “creepy” feature having to do with the privacy settings of their app.
People were receiving messages on their phones indicating that the application was listening to users while they were sleeping, with notifications that the application had activated the phone’s microphone displayed on Android operating system privacy menus.
The feature will likely be welcome by anyone who wants to keep their secret chats private.
