WhatsApp users will be able to guard their “most intimate conversations” with a new password protected feature to hide messages.  

Rolling out from today, Chat Lock allows users to put specific conversations in a separate folder that can only be opened with a password or fingerprint.  

Notifications will also hide the sender and contents of locked conversations. 

Chief Executive Officer of parent company Meta Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post: “New locked chats in WhatsApp make your conversations more private."

Host of For Tech’s Sake Elaine Burke told Newstalk Breakfast this privacy feature is “being advertised as something for your intimate conversations”. 

“Say if you are receiving some intimate messages from a person and a younger person in your family uses your phone from time to time to play games,” she said. “There will be no message previews or notifications of those messages, there will be no preview to say who that message is coming from.”

Special conversations

Ms Burke said Chat Lock can still be used “for anything”. 

“It’s just for any kind of conversation that, if you share a device, you maybe don’t want someone else to see,” she said.  

“If you want to hide a conversation that, if you’re device fell into the wrong hands, there’s an extra layer of protection on certain conversations.” 

Meta said in a statement the feature is ideal "in moments where someone else is holding your phone at the exact moment an extra-special chat arrives".

Online privacy

Ms Burke agreed that while people should be careful what they send online, WhatsApp should still protect users.  

“Certainly, for younger people, they do need to be cautious of what they share online, but digital intimacy is a thing,” she said.  

“It’s interesting to see a company acknowledging that.” 

Ms Burke said Chat Lock is separate from the encryption all WhatsApp users are guaranteed.  

“That encryption means your messages are secure and won’t be viewed by any intermediary between you and the receiving end.” 

Chat Lock aims to ensure messages from certain people are only viewed when a user wants to view them. 

Meta have also confirmed they are working on linking Chat Lock on multiple ‘companion devices’, allowing users to hide conversations on their phones and laptops.

Main image via Pexels.