iPhone users will soon be able to lock WhatsApp using Touch ID or Face ID

If you’re doing most of your messaging through WhatsApp and have a reason to keep those conversations extra private, soon you’ll be able to protect them using some of the smartphone industry’s most secure measures: Touch ID and Face ID. That is, of course, if you own an iPhone. Even authorities are having trouble breaking Apple’s locks, so you can be sure that none of your friends will be able to get past them as well.

The new feature coming to WhatsApp was spotted in an alpha version of the app that’s not available for download yet. Which ID method you’ll be able to use depends entirely on the iPhone you have, there are no models that have both a fingerprint sensor and a True Depth camera that’s required for Face ID. Once you activate the option for WhatsApp to require one or the other, you’ll have to identify yourself every time you open the app. If the biometric option is used unsuccessfully multiple times, the app will prompt you to enter the passcode for your iPhone.

The feature will also give an advantage to WhatsApp Business, an enterprise version of the app that’s also in development. Being able to protect sensitive information can be vital in the corporate world.

Before you start worrying that using the feature might compromise your identification methods, we’re here to reassure you that no such thing will happen. WhatsApp will just access Apple’s APIs that will do all the work and tell the app if the unlock was successful or not, everything is staying secured on your phone.

There’re currently no hints of support for similar security features coming to Android, but it’s very likely that WhatsApp will implement them into the Android version as well.