Details of New WhatsApp Feature Enabling Users to Lock, Hide Some Chats

WhatsApp users can now hide and lock some of the chats they want in a new feature developed by the giant app. 

Meta, a company owning giant social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced the development of new features on Tuesday. 

While explaining the new feature, Meta said it will enable users to keep private some of the conversations they want to be hidden from others. 

“Our passion is to find new ways to help keep your messages private and secure. Today, we’re excited to bring to you a new feature we’re calling Chat Lock, which lets you protect your most intimate conversations behind one more layer of security,” Meta said.

“It also automatically hides the contents of that chat in notifications, too. You can lock a chat by tapping the name of a one-to-one or group and selecting the lock option.”

While explaining how it will work, Meta said: 

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

Meta said they will in future add more options for Chat Lock that include locking for companion devices and creating a custom password for chats.