One of the risks of using applications like WhatsApp is that conversations may be exposed. This can happen for different reasons. For example, someone could have physical access to your phone and read everything you’ve talked about. Also, although this is less likely, there could be a vulnerability and someone remotely gaining access to your device.
WhatsApp allows you to encrypt chats
The novelty is that WhatsApp is going to allow encrypt or lock chats. What does this mean? You will be able to protect your conversations with a password or fingerprint. If someone enters your unlocked mobile, for example if you have left it with someone, when you enter the WhatsApp application you will find some blocked chats.
In order to access those conversations, you would have to enter the mobile code or use your fingerprint. This allows you to protect conversations that may be more personal and you don’t want them to be visible to anyone. You will not necessarily have to encrypt all conversations, just the individual or group chats that you choose.
Chat Block, or chat blocking, is what they have called this new feature. Each of the chats that you decide to block will go to an encrypted folder. If someone accesses your device and enters the app, they will be able to read all the chats except those that you have decided to block and are in the specific folder.
No notifications will appear
Plus, it not only helps protect conversations you’ve already had, but future ones as well. That is, in case you receive a new message from one of those individual or group chats, the notification will not appear. If someone is in front of your phone, they will not be able to know that you have received a message.
This also helps protect privacy. After all, if you want a chat to be truly private, it is necessary to prevent messages from appearing in notifications. It will hide the details of that conversation behind that encryption and you can thus increase the privacy.
From WhatsApp they indicate that the idea of this feature is interesting for those who share the phone. For example several members of a family or even friends or coworkers. In addition, they also mention that it is a good idea for any moment of inattention in which you are simply showing something to someone, and a message appears from a group or individual chat that you do not want to appear.
In order to see the blocked chats, you will only have to go to the corresponding folder and authenticate yourself. This can be through a password or also through a fingerprint. Using messaging applications safely is important. WhatsApp is a clear example.
