WhatsApp plans on launching a new feature for its users which will surely keep your chats safe from the spying eyes of others. WhatsApp plans on launching the fingerprint unlocking feature which will enhance its privacy policy.

The free messaging app has finally made available its fingerprint lock feature for Android beta users. This feature has already been available to iOS users for a while now. It comes with the latest Android beta version 2.19.221 and is disabled by default.

Users will need to enable it in Settings. This feature will allow users to add a layer of protection to their app chats, keeping lurkers at bay.

When enabled, users will need to use fingerprint authentication to unlock WhatsApp and gain access. There are three options for ‘automatically lock’ to choose from – immediately, after 1 minute, and after 30 minutes.

Users can choose from these options according to their preference. Choosing the’ immediately’ option will require the user to fingerprint authenticate every time they close and open the app.

If you do not enable this option, users can still reply to messages from notifications and answer WhatsApp calls, because the authentication is only set to when you want to open WhatsApp.

WABetaInfo spotted this feature first, and says, “I can say that it’s safe for your privacy to enable the Fingerprint lock feature because WhatsApp, like any other app, cannot access to your fingerprint data: the authentication process is managed by the Android system: WhatsApp uses official Android APIs, so no information is sent to WhatsApp/Facebook Server.”

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