Expanding its privacy capabilities, WhatsApp has launched a new ‘Secret Code’ feature that allows users to conceal their locked chats behind a customizable digital password.
Announcing the feature’s rollout on Thursday, WhatsApp said the additional authentication method aims to boost privacy when others access a user’s phone.
The feature lets users set a unique personalized code, using numbers, letters, or emojis, to lock their secured chat folder. Entering this secret code in the search bar is the only way to reveal hidden chats.
Alternatively, users can choose to retain locked chats in their main chat list as well. But details of such chats will remain hidden from notifications if the phone is accessed by others.
WhatsApp has been consistently strengthening privacy over the years, introducing chat encryption in 2016 and encrypted backups last year. The chat-locking feature debuted in May 2022.
“We’ll keep building new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face conversations,” WhatsApp affirmed in its announcement.
The Facebook-owned platform, used by over 2 billion globally, said the Secret Code functionality will be rolled out to all users in the coming months after its launch this week.
The move comes at a time when user security and data privacy have assumed prime significance for tech platforms like WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage amid rising government scrutiny.
