WhatsApp is introducing a new Secret Code feature for locked chats. The company’s earlier-announced Chat Lock functionality has now been expanded to allow you to hide your locked chats behind a secret code.
As a result, you can hide your sensitive conversations with other users when transferring your phone to a friend or if it falls into the wrong hands. You can also continue to secure your chats with your phone’s PIN or passcode, or by scanning your face or fingerprint.
On Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the rollout of the new Secret Code for Chat Lock function, which allows you to choose a chat and secure it with a password or phrase. Chats hidden behind a secret code are not visible in the main chat list and can only be viewed by entering the secret code, giving another degree of security to the messaging platform.
LoudFact was able to test the feature on the app’s beta version for Android smartphones. After opening the list of locked chats and selecting the three-dot menu at the top > Chat lock settings > toggle Hide locked chats and enter a secret code that you can easily remember.
Your locked chats will no longer be visible in the main chat window; now, WhatsApp displays a shortcut for locked chats when swiping down on the chat screen; these can be accessed using your fingerprint or Face ID.
After you’ve set a secret code, there’s just one method to unlock your closed WhatsApp chats: enter the same secret code in the app’s search field. This displays conversations secured by the Chat Lock feature, but only until you exit the app.
If you don’t need to hide the presence of your WhatsApp chats, you can revert to the original Chat Lock feature by opening the list of locked chats with your secret code, then tapping on the three-dot menu > Chat lock settings > toggle Hide locked chats off to turn off the Secret Code feature.
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WhatsApp also claims that you will no longer need to access each chat settings to lock a chat; instead, you will simply long-press a chat to lock it. While the secret code feature is already available to users, it will be available globally in the following months.
