Chat Lock on WhatsApp will make your ‘extra-special messages’ more private

WhatsApp has introduced a new Chat Lock feature designed to keep your conversations more private. It allows you to hide individual chats in a folder that can only be accessed with your device’s password or biometric unlocking system, like a fingerprint. Chat Lock also automatically hides the contents of your conversation in notifications.

The messaging platform believes this feature will be helpful for people who share their phones with family members or friends. It’ll also keep prying eyes away from those “extra-special” chats you don’t want anyone to read, on purpose or by accident.

You can secure both individual and group chats on WhatsApp by tapping the name of the conversation and selecting the lock option. Of course, you can always lock the entire app behind a password or biometrics, a feature that has been present on the platform for a while. Chat Lock is meant for specific conversations, not the entire app.

Once you’ve locked a chat, you can unlock it by slowly pulling it down on your inbox and entering your password or biometric.

The Meta-owned platform says it’ll add more options to Chat Lock in the future. These include locking for companion devices and the ability to create custom passwords for chats so you can use a unique password different from the one you use for your phone.

You should see Chat Lock on your WhatsApp app starting now. However, it could be a few days before the feature becomes widely available.