‘WhatsApp comes with password function to encrypt chat backups’
WABetaInfo has posted screenshots of a feature in WhatsApp that allows users to encrypt their backups with a password. It would be about media and messages. According to the website, this will be available sometime in the future for both iOS and Android.
In a message on Twitter WABetaInfo posted some screenshots of what this feature will look like. One of the screenshots shows text that users can set a password for, for example, iCloud Drive, which is used to protect future backups and thus prevent unauthorized access. Once a backup is used to restore the messages on a device, this password is necessary in addition to the login for the iCloud Drive or Google Drive. The password seems to have to be entered in the WhatsApp app and local Android backups are said to be compatible.
WABetaInfo discovered code a year ago that indicated password protection of WhatsApp backups that are uploaded. This feature seems to have become a lot more concrete based on the new screenshots, but it is still unclear when it will be available. WhatsApp did not respond to a request for comment from The Verge. WABetaInfo often discovers features in the software before they are officially released. An example of this is the dark mode; the site already wrote about it in September 2018 and the feature only became available in March of last year.