Use “secret Codes” to Hide Your Private WhatsApp Chats
WhatsApp’s Chat Lock feature is a reliable way to separate your private conversations from those you don’t mind sharing publicly. If someone opened your WhatsApp account, you probably wouldn’t mind them seeing your innocent chats with your grandparents, but there are plenty of chats that you know no one else should see. (Thank goodness for end-to-end encryption.)
But Chat Lock itself isn’t perfect. When you choose to block a chat, WhatsApp places it in the Blocked Chats folder. This is, um, a little obvious, and is probably the first place a spy might think to check for sensitive, embarrassing, or private conversations if they gain access to your app.
To add an extra layer of security to chat blocking, WhatsApp is now rolling out a new feature called “secret code”, a strategy to keep blocked chats safe from prying eyes. With a new feature, you can assign a secret code to your Blocked Chats folder. When you do this, the blocked chats will disappear from the home screen. The only way to find these conversations is to find the specific secret code.
How to Use Secret Code to Hide Blocked Chats on WhatsApp
WhatsApp began rolling out the new feature to users on Thursday, November 30, but it will be fully rolled out in the coming weeks. I don’t seem to have this feature yet, so it’s unclear exactly how to set up the passcode. This option may appear in the Blocked Chats folder, as this currently only shows your chats.
However, when you see the option to set a passcode, you can set your passcode to whatever you want, including emoji. In Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement on his WhatsApp channel, he used “Zuckš¤«1130!” as a code example. Now we all know how to hack his blocked chats.
Once configured, blocked chats will disappear. You can find the folder and all your private messages by searching for the secret code in the chats search bar.
WhatsApp hasn’t shared any details about what will happen if you forget your passcode. The tooltip says “make it memorable”, but it is unknown if there is an option to reset or undo these changes. Of course, this isn’t necessarily a password, it’s just a searchable phrase, so it may be easier to guess in the search bar than a password.
This feature may be too much for some people who still want to see their chats, secret or not. For them, WhatsApp has a more convenient way to block a chat: you can now long-press on any thread and select āBlock Chatā instead of first going through the chat settings menu.