WhatsApp lets iOS users lock app with Touch ID or Face ID

WhatsApp has built in a feature that allows iOS users to secure the app with Touch ID or Face ID. That should prevent people who have the unlocked phone in their hands from reading chats.

The app requires a login via Touch ID or Face ID after setup, the changelog states. That can be set to immediate, a minute, a quarter of an hour and an hour, according to browsing the new version of the iOS version of the app.

WhatsApp says that notifications will remain readable without authentication, so that people with an unlocked phone without authentication can still read new messages without authenticating.

The feature came into the app with version 2.19.20, which was distributed through the App Store on Sunday. The Android version of WhatsApp doesn’t have such a feature yet, but there are alternatives on Android to prevent people from reading WhatsApp chats when the phone is unlocked, but that usually requires third-party apps, which looks less secure than a built-in function. Facebook focuses its WhatsApp chat program on security, including through the use of the end-to-end encryption of the Signal protocol.