How to password protect WhatsApp chats with chat lock

by Wisdom K.E Hammond · October 7, 2023

Your WhatsApp chats are personal conversations that need to be protected from intruders no matter who they are. You can prevent intruders from reading your chats using the password-protected WhatsApp lock feature.

Here are some things to keep in mind about chat lock:

When chats are locked, the notification content and contact are hidden. The notification will show as WhatsApp: 1 new message.
To help keep media private, you’ll have to turn chat lock off to save media to your phone’s gallery.
Group chats and muted chats can also be locked.
Calls won’t be locked. A call from a locked chat contact or group will still appear.
When you turn on chat lock from your phone, it will lock chats on that phone only. If you have other devices linked to WhatsApp, such as a desktop computer, the chats on those linked devices won’t be locked.
If you use the backup and restore feature on WhatsApp, your locked chats will still be locked once you restore to a new phone. To access your locked chats you will need to have device authentication (fingerprint or Face ID) set up first.
When you turn on chat lock, the person you’re chatting with won’t know you’ve locked the chat.
If you want to lock an archived chat, you’ll need to unarchive it first, then lock it.

Chat lock lets you store your most personal conversations in a separate folder, whether you’re plotting surprise parties or sharing secret recipes.

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How to password-protect WhatsApp chats with chat lock

How to turn on the WhatsApp chat lock:

1. Tap Chat info in the chat you want to lock > Chat lock.
2. Tap Lock this chat with fingerprint or Lock this chat with Face ID.
3. Tap View to see the chat in the locked chats folder.