WhatsApp will soon allow you to hide private chats in a biometric VAULT, the leaker claims

If you’ve ever worried about someone looking at your DMs, a new WhatsApp feature can save you some stress.

The messaging app could soon allow you to lock down your private chats so they can only be accessed with biometrics like your fingerprint or a passcode.

A savvy user spotted the feature in an as yet unreleased WhatsApp update currently being tested through the Google Play Beta program.

This is a subscription service that gives Android users exclusive access to new versions of apps available on the Google Play Store.

Screenshots shared on WABetaInfo show that WhatsApp users can add a chat to a special list of “Blocked Chats”.

To access the messages it contains, the user must either enter their passcode or biometric data, which adds an extra layer of security.

The leak also states that someone is trying to open a blocked chat but cannot provide the required authentication given the opportunity to have all messages contained therein deleted in order to gain access.

Any media, such as photos and videos, sent within a locked chat are also not automatically saved to the phone’s gallery, which helps keep them private as well.

This feature is available in WhatsApp version 2.23.8.2, which is currently in beta testing, but its existence suggests that it will be rolled out in the Android app soon.

Since most Apple devices also support biometric authentication via fingerprint and Face ID, this will likely also be available in the App Store version.

Other WhatsApp features reportedly being tested through the Google Play beta program include the ability to send text and audio messages that are playable only once.

News of these privacy-focused additions comes just a month after WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart said he would rather ban the app in the UK than remove end-to-end encryption.

The government could soon ban this security feature, which encrypts the content of messages to protect them from hackers, through the Online Security Act.

This legislation could oblige tech companies to scan the content of messages sent via their social platforms for illegal content.

However, doing so would likely force them to weaken or abolish their own security measures.

WhatsApp cannot see messages sent through its own service and therefore cannot comply with law enforcement requests, for example to turn them over for anti-terrorism purposes or to identify and remove child abuse material.

Mr Cathcart said subverting the privacy of WhatsApp messages in the UK would do so for all of its users worldwide.

“There’s no way you can change it in just one part of the world,” he said.

“Some countries have chosen to block it: this is the reality of shipping a safe product.

“We were recently blocked in Iran, for example. But we’ve never seen that in a liberal democracy.’

He added: “The reality is that our users around the world want security.

“Ninety-eight percent of our users are outside of the UK. They don’t want us to downgrade the security of the product and it would just be a weird decision if we downgraded the security of the product in a way that would affect those 98 percent of users. ‘

Mr Cathcart openly criticized the Online Safety Act in September, saying it was “puzzling” that governments wanted to weaken, not strengthen, security.

The UK government insisted that the bill “does not constitute a ban on end-to-end encryption” and that “we can and must have both privacy and child safety”.

But it also doesn’t explicitly state how it would be possible to monitor message content and continue encrypting it, creating a “grey area”.

MailOnline has reached out to WhatsApp for comment.