WhatsApp has recently rolled out a secret code feature for Chat Lock. According to this new WhatsApp feature, additional protection will be provided to those chats and will make it harder to find them if someone has access to your phone or if you share a phone with someone else. WhatsApp has rolled out a secret code to Chat Lock so one can protect their chats with a unique password. One can set their locked chats to only appear when they type the secret code in the search bar, so no one can discover their most private conversations.
The chat lock feature on Android and iPhone can be turned on by the users to add an extra layer of privacy to specific chats. To read or send messages, one will need to unlock the chats using device authentication, such as a phone passcode, Face ID, fingerprint, or with a secret code that they set up. These chats will be kept separate from their other chats in a Locked Chats folder.
When chats are locked, the notification content and contact are hidden. The notification will show as WhatsApp: 1 new message.
To help keep media private, one will have to turn chat lock off to save media to their phone’s gallery.
Group chats and muted chats can also be locked with the help of this new feature.
Calls won’t be locked. A call from a locked chat contact or group will still appear.
If the chat lock is turned on from a specific phone, it will lock chats on that specific phone only but if WhatsApp is linked to other devices such as a desktop computer, the chats on those linked devices won’t be locked.
Even if one uses the backup and restore feature on WhatsApp, the locked chats will still be locked once they restore to a new phone. To access locked chats the users will need to have device authentication (fingerprint or Face ID) set up first.
When users turn on chat lock, the person they're chatting with won’t know that they locked the chat.
And to lock an archived chat, one needs to unarchive it first, then lock it.
After turning chat lock on users can choose to lock chats with a secret code that's different from phone passcode. For an extra layer of privacy, they can also choose to hide their chats in Locked Chats folder so that it doesn't appear in chat list and only appears when they type the secret code into the Search bar.
To create a secret code: Users can go to the Locked Chats folder in Settings and tap on the secret Code option and create their secret Code. After creating their code they can tap next and confirm the code and tap done.
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