How to enable fingerprint unlock feature in WhatsApp beta for Android
WhatsApp has finally added biometric unlock feature to its Android app. The Facebook-owned social messaging app back in February this year introduced a feature on to its iOS-based app that allows the iPhone users to safeuguard the data in their apps using their biometric details. The iPhone users could use Face ID or Touch ID, depending on the phone that they own, to lock the app. Now, nearly seven months later, WhatsApp is bringing the same feature on to its Android app.
All the Android smartphone users who use WhatsApp beta for Android can now unlock their smartphones using the fingerprint sensors on their smartphones. If you are a beta user of WhatsApp’s Android app you can start using this feature by updating your app to the latest version of the beta app – version 2.19.3.
Once you have updated the app, all you need to do to use fingerprint unlock in your Android beta app is follow these steps:
– Open the app and tap on the hamburger menu on the top right corner of app.
– Next tap on Settings then tap on Account.
– In Account settings, tap on Privacy option.
– Scroll down and look for Fingerprint lock option. This option will be turned off by default.
– Tap on that option and toggle the switch.
– WhatsApp will then ask you to touch the fingerprint sensor.
– Next, WhatsApp will ask you the time duration after which you want the phone to lock. You can pick between – immediately, after 1 minute or after 30 minutes.
– Next, you can toggle the ‘Show content in notifications’ button on if you want to see the contents of a message that you receive in the notifications window and you are done!
It is worth noting that WhatsApp’s biometric authentication feature has gone several changes over the past couple of month. The feature was called the Authentication feature when it was initially reported by WABetaInfo. This name was later changed to Screen Lock before being released as Fingerprint Lock to the beta users of WhatsApp’s Android app.
Coming back to the feature, now that the feature is available on WhatsApp’s Android beta app, it wouldn’t be long before WhatsApp rolls out this feature on to the main version of its Android app.