Finally, a way to protect your WhatsApp messages on Android

Privacy is a matter of paramount importance to most, if not all, of us. And even with the protection that WhatsApp promises with end-to-end encryption and the rest of it, sometimes the easiest way for your messages to be compromised is when someone simply has physical access to your smartphone.

Earlier this year, WhatsApp released a feature for iOS users that brought Face ID and Touch ID to secure their conversations. After trialling something similar for Android beta, the fingerprint lock feature has now been officially rolled out for Android users.

While others have reported that the feature isn’t available to everyone just yet, we can confirm that the fingerprint lock feature is available on our Android devices currently. To enable the feature on WhatsApp, head over to Settings > Account > Privacy > Fingerprint lock.

You have a few options to fiddle with inside the fingerprint lock settings. Set the lock to engage immediately, after 1 minute, or after 30 minutes, and you can also choose not to “show content in notifications” to further protect your privacy.

And of course, you’ll need to ensure that you’re on the latest version of WhatsApp to enable the feature. While iOS users also have Face ID unlock as well, it appears that Android users don’t have that feature just yet.

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