Meta working on the ability to lock WhatsApp chats

In order to bring more privacy to WhatsApp, Meta is currently working on the ability to lock chats on the instant chat messenger. The social media giant seems to aim to prevent WhatsApp chats from getting into the wrong hands, thus helping users protect their most private conversations on the messenger.

Meta introduced plenty of new features in the last couple of years to bring more privacy to the platforms. For example, it introduced disappearing messages to WhatsApp to give users more control over when they want their messages deleted automatically. It essentially lets you set a timer for messages to delete: you can set it to 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days.

By bringing 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 the WhatsApp Android app. And according to the description provided by the website, it will allow users to lock specific chats using their fingerprint or passcode. Once chats are locked, they can only be accessed with the user’s fingerprint or passcode.

Besides being able to stop people from reading text messages of your private chats, lock chats also ensure that the media and files you receive are not automatically saved to the device’s gallery. This feature will also likely be available to WhatsApp for iOS, Windows, and the web.

Lock chats capability for WhatsApp is currently in the development stage and is not available for beta testers. The company will introduce the functionality to WhatsApp Beta testers first and then eventually to the general public. However, we do not know when Meta will bring this capability to beta testers or the general public.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has recently launched a new WhatsApp app on Windows 11. The app is available for download from the Microsoft Store.