Most people hand their phone to someone else several times a day — a child for a video, a spouse for a photo, a shop assistant to show an order. The phone is unlocked when they do, and everything on it is theirs to see. WhatsApp’s Chat Lock, introduced last year, answered that by putting chosen conversations behind a fingerprint or face check. Its secret code goes one step further: it takes the Locked Chats folder off the screen altogether, so nobody knows there is anything to unlock.
What the code does
With a secret code set, the Locked Chats folder that normally sits at the top of the chat list can be hidden. To reach it, you type the code — a word, a phrase, an emoji — into WhatsApp’s search bar, and the folder appears. Type anything else and the search behaves normally. The code is separate from your phone’s PIN, so someone who knows how to unlock your phone still cannot find the chats, and a wrong code simply shows no result rather than an error. It works on Android and iPhone.
Setting it up
- Open WhatsApp and long-press the chat you want to lock.
- Tap the three-dot menu at the top right and choose Chat lock. (On iPhone, swipe left on the chat and tap Lock.)
- Confirm with your fingerprint or Face ID. The chat moves to a Locked Chats folder.
- Open Locked Chats, tap the three-dot menu again, and choose Chat lock settings.
- Tap Secret code, enter your code twice, and turn on Hide locked chats.
From then on, the folder is gone until you search for the code.
What it protects against — and what it does not
It protects against the person holding your unlocked phone: the casual glance, the curious relative, the colleague scrolling past. It does not protect against three things. Notifications from locked chats are hidden by default, but a screenshot or photo of the screen taken while the chat is open is not prevented. Linked devices — WhatsApp Web on a shared office computer — show locked chats unless you lock them there too. And a backup contains the chats in full; the code protects the app, not the file. If the concern is someone with your phone and the patience to restore a backup, the answer is encrypted backups with a password only you know, under Settings → Chats → Chat backup.
Three settings that matter more than this one
Be clear about the threat this addresses: it is the person who already has your unlocked phone in their hand, with your permission, for a minute. That is a real risk and a narrow one, and three other settings cover far more of the ground.
Notification previews. A locked chat is useless if the message text appears on the lock screen for anyone glancing at the table. Turn previews off — Android: Settings → Notifications; iPhone: Settings → Notifications → Show Previews → Never.
Screen lock timeout. Most phones here are set to stay awake for two or five minutes. Thirty seconds is the setting that actually protects a phone left on a desk, and it costs you nothing but an extra fingerprint.
Two-step verification. Under WhatsApp → Settings → Account, set a PIN. It stops the most damaging attack by a distance — somebody registering your number on their phone with a code read from your screen or your SIM.
The secret code is worth setting. These three are worth setting first.
Source: News18, via Prothom Alo.
