WhatsApp updates and secret chats arrive: here’s how to set up your fingerprint or facial recognition to unlock the app via Touch ID and Face ID.
On WhatsApp secret chat has arrived, a long-awaited feature of who holds particularly their privacy: the ability to hide the chat application and restrict access by external users via a digital facial recognition and fingerprint. The new update is initially available only for iOS users, and so for now it is possible to take advantage of the new function only on iPhone thanks to two of the main features of the new generation iPhone phones: Touch ID and Face ID.
Let’s see how to set up the new function.
WhatsApp: Touch ID and Face ID to protect chats
Just the biometric authentication of the iPhone is at the center of the new update WhatsApp, which after the holiday mode and the Dark Mode is widening the spectrum of its possibilities.
The introduction of Face ID and Touch ID support is part of the 2.19.20 update, available on the App. How does the way we use WhatsApp change? Simple: every time we open the application to write or read a message we will automatically request authentication by fingerprint or facial recognition, depending on our iPhone model.
With iPhone X, Xs, Xs MaX and XR you can enable, through the settings, Face ID and unlock conversations only and exclusively with our face; with iPhone from 5s to 8 Plus via Touch ID.
The setting path is as follows: we open WhatsApp, select “Settings” on the bottom right, “Account” (blue icon with the key symbol), Privacy, at the bottom we find “Screen Lock” (where you can enable Touch ID or Face ID).
In the Screen Lock section you can also set the time in which to activate the security system: immediately, after 1 minute, 15 minutes and 1 hour.
Does the device not recognize your face or fingerprint? Quiet, in this case will come to our rescue the unlock code of the iPhone that, once typed, will allow us to use the application and to keep prying eyes away.
An example of how WhatsApp works with an unrecognized Touch ID
For the time being, the limitation is extended automatically to the whole application: it is not clear if in the future we will see multiple customization options to hide or block our conversations to external users.
The support of WhatsApp to Apple technology also guarantees greater security and attention to our privacy: no data will be transmitted to WhatsApp, a guarantee given by the particularly restrictive policies of Cupertino regarding personal data of iOS users.