WhatsApp has added a bunch of new security and privacy features on its platform in the past couple of months. Last month, the Meta-owned messaging platform announced three new security features for its messaging app. Now, almost a month later, the company has expanded its portfolio of security and privacy feature by introducing a new functionality dubbed as ‘Chat Lock’. 

chat Lock, as WhatsApp explains, will enable users to protect their private conversations from prying eyes by putting it under an additional set of lock and key, or in this case, password and biometric authentication. 

WhatsApp’s new Lock Chat feature puts all the locked conversation in a separate folder that is protected by a password and biometric authentication. WhatsApp users can access locked chats either by using the set password or biometric authentication, which includes Face ID and fingerprint sensor, based on the device that you are using.

Furthermore, when a user receives a new message in a locked chat, the company hides the name of the sender and the summary of the message. Instead, it prompts the user to unlock the chat to view its contents.

“Locking a chat takes that thread out of the inbox and puts it behind its own folder that can only be accessed with your device password or biometric, like a fingerprint. It also automatically hides the contents of that chat in notifications too,” WhatsApp wrote in a blog post.

Users can lock a chat by tapping the name of a one-to-one or group and selecting the lock option. To reveal these chats, slowly pull down on their inbox and enter their phone password or biometric.

Now, an obvious concern with this feature is that at the moment it is using the same password that users have already set on their devices, or within the app. This means that if an individual knows a user’s password, they can still access their locked chats, which defeats the purpose of having this feature in the first place.

WhatsApp says that it is well aware of these issues and that it is working on mitigating these concerns. The company says that over the next few months, the company will add more options for Chat Lock, including locking for companion devices, creating a custom password for your chats so that users can use a unique password different from their phone’s. As far as availability is concerned, WhatsApp says that it has started rolling out this feature to its Android and iOS users.