Facebook owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on a feature that will allow users to password-protect and encrypt their cloud chat backups. Earlier, only end-to-end chats were encrypted on the Facebook-owned platform, and chat backups were likely to be attacked by third parties.
As previously announced, @WhatsApp is working on cloud backups encryption.
The chat database and media will be safe from unauthorized access when using a password. The password is private and it's not sent to WhatsApp.
It will be available in a future build for iOS and Android. pic.twitter.com/Lp06PaECBX— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 8, 2021
The feature was spotted by WABetaInfo on Monday. The screenshots posted reveal how the encryption of the chat backup will work. Screenshot text says, “To prevent unauthorised access to your iCloud Drive backup, you can set a password that will be used to encrypt future backups. This password is required when you restore it from the backup.”
Users must enter a password that is at least eight characters long. Screenshots also mentions that WhatsApp won’t be able to retrieve forgotten passwords
As of now there is no official word or reveals the date of this major security update being rolled out. But it’s certain that the security feature will be available on both Android and iOS devices.