WhatsApp is probably one of the most used messaging apps on planet Earth. You must have seen ads or promoted posts from WhatsApp saying it’s end-to-end encrypted. Even though the chat and the local backup WhatsApp generates is end-to-end encrypted, the cloud backup WhatsApp creates is not. The company recently announced that it is working to bring encrypted cloud backup, and now the feature has been spotted for the first in a while.
The report comes from ever-so-reliable WABetaInfo, which says that WhatsApp has started testing its encrypted cloud backup on iPhone. The feature is available only on the beta version of WhatsApp for iOS. However, it is expected to be available for everyone quite soon.
You’ll need to create a password for encrypted WhatsApp cloud backup. When you restore a WhatsApp chat backup on iOS after enabling encryption, you’ll need to use this password to decrypt it. If you lose this password, you’ll not be able to restore the chat, says WhatsApp in the label under encrypted backup.
In addition to encrypted backups, WhatsApp has started testing custom privacy settings. The feature was spotted a while back and has now started rolling out on WhatsApp for Android beta. Earlier the part was only available for ‘Last Seen,’ which hides when the last time you’re online on WhatsApp. Now, the feature has been expanded to the ‘Profile Picture’ settings.
WABetaInfo says, “it is not yet clear when WhatsApp is planning to release” these features.