Interesting news arrives today from Whatsapp and this time we are not talking about beta but about a feature that will soon be available to everyone. After having implemented some new features relating to surveys and sharing with captions in recent weeks, the company of the Meta group launched “Chat Lock”a function which, after authentication, prevents access to more confidential conversations. We had this function seen already in beta at the beginning of April
MORE SECURITY FOR CHATS
When using the padlock function, the chat will be removed from the main Whatsapp list and hidden in a dedicated folder that can be accessed just by entering a password or through biometric recognition fingerprint or face, depending on the device.
Furthermore, all the contents and senders of all the chats that we have decided to hide will also be automatically hidden from the notifications, for an additional level of privacy.
As stated by Whatsapp, this function has been specially designed for protect the privacy of those who often share their phone with other people, preventing you from accidentally showing more intimate conversations or private notifications at that very moment. Of course, anyone can use this feature depending on their needs.
At the moment, this feature will be available only on the main smartphone on which Whatsapp is installed, not on the complementary ones that will be added with future updates. In addition to this possibility, Whatsapp will also add the possibility of create a custom password for chats, different from the main one of the smartphone.
HOW TO ACTIVATE CHAT LOCK
To activate the chat lock feature just keep your finger pressed on the one we want to protect, choosing it from all in the list, and select option. Alternatively, you can also click on the person’s name in the chat and choose between the various functions. To view the padlocked chats, you will need to slowly drag the chat page down, as you usually do to access archived chats, and enter your password or proceed with face or fingerprint recognition.
Once unlocked, you will be able to access all chat content and you will be able to view notifications again. The authentication operation will be repeated every time you decide to access a blocked chat.
The rollout of this new feature has just begun and will be progressively rolled out to all users, across all platforms.
TWO NEWS (IN BETA) FOR THE WINDOWS APP
But today’s news for Whatsapp isn’t finished, even if this time we’re talking about functions that are still in the beta phase.
In the Windows version, in fact, one has been implemented feature that allows you to prevent messages from disappearing, which is already available on both the mobile apps and the Desktop Electron version of WhatsApp. Thanks to this function, you can prevent some messages from disappearing by selecting the “keep” option in the message menu.
WhatsApp also introduced a new button for quickly send a reaction via emoji. With this latest beta, in fact, the reaction bar has been included within the redesigned menu which has definitely improved the user interface when viewing the message options.
Both of these functions are currently only available to some beta testers who have installed the latest WhatsApp beta update for Windows released on the Microsoft Store. These features should be available to more users in the coming days.
