WhatsApp Allows Users to Lock and Hide Conversations with "Chat Lock" Feature

WhatsApp rolled out a new feature "Chat Lock" which allows users to be able to lock and hide conversations.

Chat Lock will remove the chat thread from the app's regular onscreen inbox and place it into a new folder that can only be opened by a password or biometric, such as facial recognition or a fingerprint.

Meta - WhatsApp's parent company - described the new feature as one more layer of security and will protect the users' most intimate conversations and hide notifications from them.

As part of its privacy package, Meta allows WhatsApp users to encrypt their backups, block the ability to screenshot, and make their messages disappear automatically.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive officer, confirmed the new feature in a Facebook post.

"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," he said.

Over the next few months, WhatsApp going to be adding more options for Chat Lock, including locks for companion devices and creating a custom password for chats so that users can use a unique password different from phones.

Chat Lock will be available globally on WhatsApp starting Monday, May 15.

Meta has criticized the Online Safety Bill, along with other companies. It says the law change would undermine end-to-end encryption - a level of security for messages which means nobody other than the users involved in the conversation is able to see its content.