Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new WhatsApp feature called Chat Lock that allows users to add an extra layer of security to their most intimate conversations. This Chat Lock feature let users to lock a chat, takes that thread out of the inbox and puts it behind its own folder that can only be accessed with the device’s password or biometric, like a fingerprint. Once a chat is locked, the app will also automatically hide the contents of that chat in notifications. Users can lock a chat by tapping the name of a one-to-one or group and selecting the lock option. To reveal these chats, users have to slowly pull down on their inbox and enter their phone password.

When someone messages a user and they have that chat locked, the sender’s name and the content of the message will remain hidden. WhatsApp’s new ‘Chat Lock’ option enables users to move private chats out of their main inbox to their own password-protected folder in the app.  

Over the next few months, WhatsApp has plans to add more options for Chat Lock, including locks for companion devices and creating a custom password for chats so that users can use a unique password different from the one they use for their phone.