WhatsApp is working on encrypted chat backups, disappearing photo feature

We’ve got a bit of welcome news from a WhatsApp leak today, especially in this era of constant bombardment with news about data spills and app security breaches all over the place.

“WhatsApp is working on cloud backups encryption,” the independent but reliable source WABetaInfo claims in the Twitter leak. Apparently, WhatsApp is introducing a new password-protected chat backup feature on their messaging app. You can choose to lock any of your chats behind a password, and not even WhatsApp will have access to these private passwords. Upon reinstallation of WhatsApp, or installation on a new device, you will receive a password prompt to unlock your protected messages.

Although the chat database is already encrypted, the encryption does not extend to shared media, and according to WABetaInfo, the algorithm is reversible and not end-to-end encrypted.

The cloud-backup encryption feature should become available on a future update for both Android and iOS.

This is not the only security update news we’ve got from WhatsApp, however. A few days ago, it was revealed WhatsApp is also testing a function for sending messages which disappear after 24 hours, as well as self-destructing photos—Snapchat-style.

In order to use any of these features, though, you will have to agree to WhatsApp’s new privacy policy before the May 15 deadline. Failing to do so will make you lose the functionality of the app and all upcoming features.