Turn on chat lock on or off

Android
iOS
You can turn on the chat lock feature from your Android or iPhone to add an extra layer of privacy to specific chats by locking them. Any chats you have locked will be kept separate from your other chats in a Locked Chats folder.
In order to read or send messages, you’ll need to unlock your chats using device authentication, such as your phone passcode, Face ID, fingerprint, or with a secret code that you can set up. When chats are locked, the notification content and contact are hidden. The notification will show as WhatsApp: 1 new message.
Note: Depending on what language you're using in WhatsApp, the feature name may appear differently as either Chat lock or Chat block.
  • To help keep media private, you’ll have to turn chat lock off to save media from locked chats to your phone’s gallery.
  • Calls won’t be locked. A call from a locked chat contact or group will still appear.
  • If you use the backup and restore feature on WhatsApp, your locked chats will still be locked once you restore to a new phone. To access your locked chats you will need to have device authentication set up first.
  • When you turn on chat lock, the person you’re chatting with won’t know you’ve locked the chat.
    • Note: If you have WhatsApp linked to certain devices, including Android, iPhone, and Web, your locked chats will be locked on those linked devices, too. However, you’ll need to create a secret code on your primary device to open your locked chats on another device. You’ll see a banner in the app if you have a linked device where locked chats aren’t supported. Additional supported platforms will be coming soon.

Turn chat lock on or off

You can turn chat lock off or on for any chat, including group chats and muted chats. If you don’t have your device authentication set up yet, such as your phone passcode or fingerprint, you’ll be prompted to set it up before locking a chat.
To turn chat lock on or off:
  1. Tap and hold the chat you want to lock or unlock.
  2. Tap
    more options
    > Lock Chat or Unlock Chat.

Create a secret code

After turning chat lock on, you can choose to lock your chats with a secret code that's different from your phone passcode.
To create a secret code:
  1. Go to your Locked Chats folder > Settings.
  2. Tap Secret Code > Create Secret Code.
  3. Create your code and tap Next.
  4. Confirm your code and tap Done.
You can change or turn off your secret code at any time by going to your Locked Chats folder > Locked Chats > Settings > Secret code.

View your Locked Chats folder

You can view your locked chats by scrolling down on your chat list and tapping Locked Chats.
You can also choose to hide your Locked Chats folder so that it doesn’t appear in your chat list by going to your Locked Chats folder > Settings tap Hide Locked Chats on.
To view your locked chats:
  1. Go to the Chats tab and scroll down to tap Locked Chats.
    • If you’ve hidden your Locked Chats folder, enter your secret code into the Search bar and tap Locked Chats.
  2. Touch the fingerprint sensor to unlock.
  3. Tap the chat to view or send a message.

Unlock and clear all chats

You can unlock and clear every chat you have locked, in the case that you've hidden your Locked Chats folder from your chat list and have forgotten your secret code to access it.
If you unlock and clear all locked chats, all locked chats will be unlocked on your chat list. This means that the chat history in your locked chats, including the messages and media, will be cleared. If you have a secret code, that will also be cleared.
Note: You can restore an unlocked and cleared chat if your latest backup occurred prior to clearing the chat. Please be aware that you’ll lose any chats that occurred after the latest backup.
To clear all chats:
  1. Go to your WhatsApp Settings.
  2. Tap Privacy > Chat Lock > Unlock and clear locked chats.

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