WhatsApp is introducing “secret code”, a new security feature that will allow users to hide their locked chats behind a password. Locked chats already allow users to keep their conversations private from prying eyes through their chosen device biometrics. The new update not only gives them another layer of added protection, but also lets users hide their locked chats folder entirely from the chat list.
Chat lock was first introduced in May. Secret codes build on that as “an additional way to protect those chats” so they are “harder to find if someone has access to your phone or you share a phone with someone else,” WhatsApp said in a release sent out to the media. While chat locks rely completely on your device’s biometric data— PIN, fingerprint, Face ID etc— secret codes can be a custom password set differently from it.
Images shared by WhatsApp suggest, when enabled, you’d simply have to type your password in the app’s search bar for access, that is if you’ve chosen to hide your locked chat folder. Also, it is now possible to lock a chat directly from the chat list, by simply long pressing, while previously you had to go inside the individual chat’s setting to lock it.
Here’s what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has to say about WhatsApp’s new secret codes chat lock feature:
“Rolling out secret code to Chat Lock on WhatsApp so you can protect your chats with a unique password. Now you can set your locked chats to only appear when you type the secret code in the search bar, so no one can “unintentionally” discover your most private conversations.”
WhatsApp has started rolling out the secret code feature update at the time of writing and plans to make it available to users globally in the coming months.
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