The feature will be available to users with the new app update.
Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announced a new WhatsApp feature called ‘Chat Lock’ to make users’ most intimate conversations even more private.
Here are 5 points on the new feature:
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As per Meta, this feature lets you protect your most intimate conversations with a password and secures them in a separate folder. When someone messages you and you have that chat locked, the sender’s name and the content of the message will also be hidden.
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When a WhatsApp chat is ‘locked,’ that conversation thread is taken out of a user’s inbox, and put behind a folder of its own. It also automatically hides the contents of that chat in notifications, too.
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A user can lock a chat by tapping the name of a one-to-one or group and selecting the lock option. The feature will be available to users with the new app update, on both Android and iOS devices.
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To access a locked chat, a person can only use the password of their device, or alternatively, biometric authentication such as fingerprint. As per Meta, the ability to lock a chat will be greatly beneficial for users who share their phones with family members from time to time.
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In the coming months, more options will be added to Chat Lock, including locks for companion devices, as well as custom passwords for chats, so that a person can use a password different from that of their phone to unlock a conversation.
