WhatsApp adds fingerprint lock for Android users

WhatsApp is introducing a new feature for Android users – a fingerprint lock that will prevent your friends and family from sneaking a look at your private messages when you leave the room.

If Android users choose to enable the new feature on their phone, then anyone attempting to open WhatsApp will be required to scan their fingerprint before they can read the messages stored in the app.

A similar feature was introduced on WhatsApp for iOS earlier this year, giving iPhone users the ability to protect their messages using either the phone's fingerprint reader ( Touch ID) or Apple's facial recognition system (Face ID).

However, this is the first time the feature will be available on Android devices, providing an 'extra layer of security' for WhatsApp users who own devices running Google's software.

WhatsApp did not mention a facial recognition unlock for Android in its announcement, meaning owners of devices such as Google's Pixel 4 - which uses facial recognition rather than a fingerprint scanner as its biometric security - will not be able to use the feature.

The feature is being rolled out to WhatsApp users worldwide who have a fingerprint- scanning capable Android smartphone, the company confirmed.

Users of WhatsApp for Android can enable the new feature by opening the WhatsApp app and going to Settings > Account > Privacy > Fingerprint lock.

Here they can turn on the ' Unlock with fingerprint' feature, and choose whether the lock activates immediately, after one minute, or after 30 minutes.

As well as preventing nosy friends from reading your private messages, the new feature could potentially make it harder for police, intelligence and other law enforcement agencies to read messages sent by criminals and terrorists.

The app has already been criticised in the past for its ' unbreakable' end- to- end encryption system, meaning only people in conversations can see their contents.

The security system blocks governments and law enforcement from intercepting messages from people who might be using the platform for illegal activities.

Last year, WhatsApp admitted that its encryption software could be abused by criminals and terrorists.

This followed revelations that security services were power less to access Westminster attacker Khalid

Masood's messages after his death in 2017.

The then-Home secretary Amber Rudd vowed to ' call time' on internet firms who give terrorists 'a place to hide'. 'We need to make sure that organisations like WhatsApp, and there are plenty of others like that, don't provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other,' Ms Rudd told BBC's Andrew Marr shortly after the attack, in which five people were killed.

The new print authentication could now make it even harder for security services to access encrypted communications from possible criminals.

WhatsApp has more than one billion monthly active users worldwide.

©Daily Mail, London