How to lock your WhatsApp chats on Android and iOS

It is natural that you would share private information with your contacts on WhatsApp. It could be your best friend, your spouse, your family, or even your colleague or boss. Although the end-to-end encryption in WhatsApp makes your chats secure so much so that even WhatsApp cannot access them, there is always the possibility that someone using your phone may access your chats. No one wants that. WhatsApp lets you lock your chats on both Android and iOS devices to prevent this unauthorised access.

You can lock your chats on an Android phone or an iPhone using your device’s primary security method. This could be a pattern, a PIN, a password, your facial data, or the fingerprint data that you use to unlock your phone. This is how you can put all your chats behind your phone’s security lock.

On Android

• If you are using WhatsApp on an Android phone, you can follow this process:
• Open WhatsApp > tap More options > Settings > Privacy.
• Scroll to the bottom and tap App lock.
• Turn on Unlock with biometric.
• Touch the fingerprint sensor or scan your face to confirm.
• You can tap to select the amount of time before fingerprint authentication is prompted.
• Turn on Show content in notifications if you’d like to preview message text inside new message notifications.

On iPhone

• If you are using WhatsApp on an iPhone, you could either use Face ID or Touch ID to lock your chats. Follow these steps:
• Open WhatsApp Settings.
• Tap Privacy > Screen Lock.
• Turn on Require Touch ID or Require Face ID.
• Select the length of time WhatsApp can be on standby mode before Touch ID or Face ID is required.