Protected chat backups coming to WhatsApp
WhatsApp is working on a new security feature for the Android version of its app which will allow users to protect their message backups.
According to a report by WABetaInfo, this feature is currently in alpha and is not yet available to users.
WhatsApp currently allows users to back up their chats, media, and contacts to their Google Drive automatically.
This enables users to easily restore their settings and chats if they change their smartphone or re-install the application.
However, the data stored by WhatsApp in Google Drive is unencrypted, which means that if your Google Drive credentials are compromised, your chats and other messaging data would be accessible by an attacker.
WhatsApp is now planning to fix this problem by encrypting its Google Drive backups with a password, providing a layer of security to your online-hosted messenger files.
This would also mean that neither WhatsApp or Google would be able to access your content while it is backed up to Google Drive.
The feature will be available through the Chat Backup screen under the Settings menu and can be turned on or off.
If you turn on this feature once it is implemented and lose your password, however, you may not be able to back up your WhatsApp chats from Google Drive anymore.
Other new WhatsApp features
WhatsApp is working on a number of other features for its messaging platform, including a dark mode for its desktop and web applications.
The dark theme for desktop is still under development and some features – such as emojis – have not been adapted to the new theme yet, but the home, chat, and settings screens all have dark interfaces.
The dark theme is not currently accessible, but it should be available through the navigation bar or settings menu once implemented.
WhatsApp also offers dark themes for its Android application and is working on two new dark themes for its iOS app – one which uses deep black colours for the backgrounds of tables and cells and another which uses slightly lighter shades resulting in a grey tone.
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