The Android version of WhatsApp is looking to get a new security feature which will allow users to protect their message backups, reports My Broadband via WABetaInfo. The feature is currently in its Alpha stage of development.
WhatsApp currently allows users to back up their chats, media and contacts automatically to their Google Drive. This allows users to easily restore their settings and chats if something happens to their smartphones or re-install WhatsApp.
The reason for this new feature coming into fruition is that the chat data stored on Google Drive isn’t encrypted, meaning that if your Drive credentials are compromised, your chats, pictures, voice notes and any other messaging data can be accessed by malicious agents.
WhatsApp is planning to fix this issue by finally encrypting its Google Drive backups with a password, adding another layer of security to your online-stored data. This also means that neither WhatsApp nor Google can access your backed up data. WhatsApp is also unable to access user-to-user chat logs on smartphones due to their super-strong encryption either.
This new feature will become available under the Chat Backup screen under the Settings menu for Android users and can be turned on or off at the user’s whim.
However, if the feature is turned on and your Backup password is lost – you will be unable to restore your WhatsApp chats from Google Drive anymore.
This new security feature joins other new features being worked on by WhatsApp, including a dark mode for its desktop and web applications.
Edited by Luis Monzon
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