How to lock WhatsApp chats without downloading any app

With WhatsApp replacing all types of communications these days, it becomes important to lock some or all the WhatsApp chats. While the Google Play Store has a handful of apps that can lock WhatsApp chats as a whole by locking the app with fingerprint or a passkey, it is not always important to lock all the WhatsApp chats. 

What if we could individually lock WhatsApp chats to have granular control over our privacy. Yes, it is possible now and I will talk about how to lock WhatsApp chats individually today in this tutorial. This is going to be interesting and hence read the tutorial till the end to proceed one step ahead in the name of privacy. 

So, without any further delay let's get started with how to lock selected WhatsApp chats.

Prerequisites

To be able to lock WhatsApp chats in this way, you must have the latest version of WhatsApp installed on your Android. 

If you don't have the latest version installed, just get the latest version by updating your WhatsApp app from the Google Play Store. 

Lock WhatsApp chats individually

Now that you have the latest version of WhatsApp, open WhatsApp and then tap on the WhatsApp chat that you want to lock. 

Once there, tap on the contact to see other details of the contact. 

In the contact details page scroll down and you will find the 'Chat lock' button to lock WhatsApp chats. 

In the next step enable the option that says 'Lock this chat with fingerprint'. 

Now you will get a warning that basically says, the chat will not be locked on linked devices. I am coming to this later. Just tap 'OK' for now. 

Hence, the selected chat conversation is locked. You can either view it now or later from the confirmation message that shows. 

Repeat the same above steps with all the chats that you want to hide.

Accessing locked WhatsApp chats

What's good about this method to lock WhatsApp chats is that the chats will not appear in the regular conversation view. That way, in the case someone gets access to your WhatsApp, they won't know which chats are locked unless they scroll up in the chat list where they can find the 'Locked chats'. Yes, tap here to see the list of locked chats.

You will have to use the fingerprint to view the locked chats. 

In the case you get a message from someone whose chat is locked on your device, you will just get the heads-up notification saying you got one WhatsApp message. You simply need to tap on the notification and use your fingerprint to unlock and see the message.

Unlock locked WhatsApp chats

If you want to unlock the locked chats, steps are simple as cake. 

Just go to Locked chats, and hence open the chat that you want to unlock. 

Go to the contacts page, scroll down just like you did the last time at the time of locking the chat, and hence tap on 'Chat lock'. This time, you should find it ‘ON’.

Now disable the option that says 'Lock this chat with fingerprint'. 

The selected chat is now unlocked. 

Some limitations

The chats locked through this method won't be locked on the linked devices. It means if you are running WhatsApp on multiple handsets, and you want to hide a chat in all the handsets, you have to carry out the steps mentioned above individually on all the handsets. 

If someone somehow gets access to the locked WhatsApp chats, they can easily take a screenshot of the conversations, as of now. 

If anyone in the list of locked chats post a status, it will be visible to you. This isn’t not a limitation or glitch, as you can see the status of your contacts as long as they allow it, no matter whether you chat with the person or not. Still some users might find it a problem, and hence I thought of informing it, lest it matters.

Whatever may the current problems be, this is a nice and effortless way to lock WhatsApp chats without downloading any app. 

So that's all. Do you have any questions? Feel free to comment your queries or feedback below.