If you like WhatsApp’s Chat Lock feature, you’ll love what’s next | Tech News
WhatsApp appears to have another privacy function in the works – the ability to hide locked chats.
The ‘Chat Lock’ feature was unveiled earlier this year, designed to help users keep their ‘most intimate conversations’ safe from prying eyes by protecting them with a password and filing them in a separate folder.
In addition, notifications from locked chats can’t pop up at inopportune moments, such as when you’ve just passed the phone to a friend to look at some photos.
Now it seems soon they will be able to be hidden altogether, according to WABetaInfo, which has spotted the function in testing.
This means their existence will be hidden altogether from anyone who happens to catch a glance at your WhatsApp – and can only be accessed using a secret code entered into the search bar.
Previously it was still fairly obvious to any over-the-shoulder peekers that a user had a locked chats folder, a surefire way to pique interest – or suspicion.
How to hide locked chats on WhatsApp
So far, as with everything on the app, it looks as though it will be pretty simple to switch.
A screenshot acquired by WABetaInfo suggests it will be a case of toggling on ‘hide locked chats’ and setting up a secret code to access them.
What happens if a user forgets the code isn’t yet known.
Announcing Chat Lock in May, WhatsApp owner Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: ‘New locked chats in WhatsApp make your conversations more private. They’re hidden in a password protected folder and notifications won’t show sender or message content.’
A statement from the company added: ‘We think this feature will be great for people who have reason to share their phones from time to time with a family member or those moments where someone else is holding your phone at the exact moment an extra special chat arrive.’
Hiding locked chats is the second upcoming privacy to be revealed in recent days after it was revealed ‘listen once’ voice notes are also being tested in beta.
And in some long-awaited news, WhatsApp recently announced the ability to log into two separate accounts on one phone, toggling between the two.
Unveiled as a way to combine the ‘work you and fun you’ in one device, it was also billed a ‘cheater’s paradise’ online, allowing secret accounts to be kept hidden without the need for a burner phone.
How to hide locked chats on WhatsApp
So far, as with everything on the app, it looks as though it will be pretty simple to switch.
A screenshot acquired by WABetaInfo suggests it will be a case of toggling on ‘hide locked chats’ and setting up a secret code to access them.
What happens if a user forgets the code isn’t yet known.
How to turn on WhatsApp’s Chat Lock
You can turn Chat Lock on within the chat info for each individual chat that you want to block.
You will be prompted to set up your device authentication – such as passcode, fingerprint or face ID – if you have not done so already before the chat can be locked.
The simple steps are as follows:
- Tap on the name of the contact or group, then hit Chat lock
- Toggle on Lock this chat with fingerprint or Lock This Chat with Face ID.
- Tap View to see the chat in the Locked chats folder.
Locked chats will then be removed from the thread in the app’s inbox and placed into a new folder that is secured by your password or biometric pass, as well as hiding notifications from the locked chats.
All locked chats are stored in the locked chat folder in your listed chats.
How to turn off chat lock
Turning it off also very simple – all you have to do is go back into the chat info on the locked chat and toggle the chat lock off, confirmin
MORE : WhatsApp issues urgent warning to Android users – is your phone on the list?
MORE : WhatsApp is testing a new type of voice note
MORE : A long-awaited WhatsApp feature has finally been announced
Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Share your views in the comments below
Get your need-to-know
latest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
