WhatsApp Is Testing A Feature That Will Let You Hide It From Nosy People With Your...

WhatsApp Is Testing A Feature That Will Let You Hide It From Nosy People With Your Fingerprint

Right now, opening up your WhatsApp is a simple matter of just hitting the app icon. So the only thing stopping people around you from reading your private messages is you phone passcode, if any. But the company thinks you should be more secure than that.


According to a discovery by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is currently testing fingerprint authentication on the Android version of the app. If enabled, it means you'd need to verify your fingerprint just to even open up the app, or even read from the notification shade or home screen.

It won't stop a hacker or piece of malware that hijacks your app, but at least the nosy people around you can't read your messages, even if they have your phone pass code. However, we'd still advise against using this to cheat on a partner. Any and all phone security is moot at that point.


A screenshot of the feature shows that, if you prefer, you can also uses 4-digit PIN to access the app instead of a fingerprint. And just so we're clear, the security here is all-encompassing, you can't secure only a single chat thread.



The new feature will eventually be available for all Android devices running Marshmallow or later. It's still in the alpha stage of testing so that could take a few months however.

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