Many of us carry years of precious memories in our WhatsApp chats – photos, heartfelt voice notes, and important conversations. That’s why protecting them if you ever lose your phone or need to transfer to a new device is so important.
WhatsApp was the first private messaging app to offer end-to-end encryption for your chat backups so that your old messages can stay with you. Today, we’re making it easier than ever to set extra security for your chat backups by introducing passkey-encrypted backups.
Passkeys will allow you to use your fingerprint, face, or screen lock code to encrypt your chat backups instead of having to memorize a password or a cumbersome 64-digit encryption key. Now, with just a tap or a glance, the same security that protects your personal chats and calls on WhatsApp is applied to your chat backups so they are always safe, accessible and private.
This will be rolled out gradually over the coming weeks and months. To get started, go to Settings > Chats > Chat backup > End-to-end encrypted backup.