Whatsapp Messenger Update: Lock Your Chats with Face and Touch ID

While numerous social applications around the globe are still trying to recover from the major data breaches, Whatsapp is the only application that is keeping all of us covered.

Alongside the industry leading end-to-end encryption feature on an offer here, the app is all set to provide one extra layer of security to its users by adding Face or Touch lock feature in the app. Yes, you heard it right; WhatsApp will soon update its iOS application with bio-metric authentication which is appearing in early betas as of now. The feature will allow users to ‘lock’ the app with Touch ID or Face ID.

That implies if someone gets access to your unlocked phone he/she won’t be able to see your WhatsApp messages without you authenticating yourself again. How helpful this is – relies upon what you are hoping to shield yourself from.

Here is how you will be able to toggle this feature in your iOS device:

Go to Settings > Account > Privacy and tap Screen Lock. Then, you can select the option depending upon your preferences; “Require touch ID” or “Require Face ID”.

For some, this WhatApp messenger update is a convenient level of security that would keep kids from accidentally messaging people, or erasing chats or purchasing a subscription from in-app purchases. While for others, it can be a way to protect their personal conversation from friend to whom they are showing some pictures.

But, if somebody knows your PIN, they will be able to access your WhatsApp in a similar way you will have the capacity to. It’s obvious that you should protect your PIN to keep individuals from accessing your WhatsApp chats and in-application purchases from different applications that give micro-transactions.

With this function, your facial information and unique finger impression will remain encoded in the phone and WhatsApp will not be getting access to your personal bio-metric information.

As of now, this function is just accessible to iPhone users; however, Android clients will get a comparative feature in the near future. The framework that empowers Android devices for securing applications is mostly the same as Apple’s and Android users will get access to the feature very soon.