WhatsApp has introduced a new feature that allows users to lock and hide individual chats to enhance privacy and security. While the app already offers the option to lock the entire application, this new feature takes it a step further by allowing users to secure specific conversations from prying eyes.
By locking and hiding chats, even if someone gains access to your WhatsApp, they won’t be able to view the locked conversations without the passcode or biometric authentication. This provides an additional layer of protection for sensitive or private chats.
For those eagerly awaiting this feature, here’s a guide on how to lock and hide WhatsApp chats on both Android and iOS devices. This step-by-step process ensures that your conversations remain confidential and can only be accessed by authorized individuals.
It’s important to note that this feature is currently available on both Android and iOS platforms, allowing users on different devices to benefit from enhanced privacy controls within the WhatsApp messaging app.
How to Lock WhatsApp Chats on Android & iOS
To enable the “Chat lock” feature on WhatsApp, we have tested this tutorial on WhatsApp for Android. The steps provided below are applicable to iPhone as well. Let’s take a look at how you can enable this feature:
To lock a specific contact’s conversation on WhatsApp, follow these steps:
- Open WhatsApp on your Android or iOS device.
- Locate and open the conversation of the contact you wish to lock.
- Once you are in the conversation, tap on the name of the contact at the top of the screen.
By tapping on the contact’s name, you can access additional options and settings specific to that conversation, including the ability to lock it for added privacy and security.
4. Then, scroll down and tap on the new “Chat lock” option.
Please note that it is not possible to lock archived chats on WhatsApp. If you want to lock a chat that has been archived, you will first need to unarchive the conversation.
If you encounter a warning message stating that the chat is archived, tap on “Unarchive” to proceed. If you don’t see this message, you can proceed to the next step.
After unarchiving the chat, on Android, toggle on the “Lock this chat with fingerprint” option. On iOS, you will find a similar toggle related to Face ID.
WhatsApp will display a prompt informing you that the conversation will not be locked on linked devices. Exercise caution when using the same WhatsApp account on multiple phones. Tap on “OK” and verify your fingerprint or Face ID to lock the chat.
And there you have it! You have successfully learned how to lock an individual chat on WhatsApp without using any additional app. The WhatsApp application will confirm your action with a pop-up message.
Furthermore, even though you will still receive notifications for new messages in locked chats, these messages will be hidden in the notification area. The locked chat itself will also be hidden, as we will explain in the following section.
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Access Locked Chats on WhatsApp
Once you have locked a conversation, WhatsApp will hide it from the main “Chats” tab in the app. These locked conversations can now be accessed within a hidden section called “Locked Chats.” To learn how to access this section, follow the steps below:
1. Open WhatsApp and swipe downwards on the chat feed to reveal the “Locked Chats” section.
2. Now you can tap on these chats to unlock it again.
3. The “Locked Chats” section in WhatsApp is automatically locked once you go back to the main chat screen.
Turn Off ‘Chat Lock’ for WhatsApp Chats
If you no longer want to lock and hide conversations within WhatsApp, you can easily undo this feature by following these steps:
1. Open that chat and click on the name option.
2. Scroll down to bottom.
3. Click on the chat lock option.
4. Here you can easily unlock the chats.
Note: Right now this chat lock feature will not work on all the login devices only it will work on the main app of WhatsApp.
