WhatsApp users will soon be able to lock and hide their conversations, Meta bosses have confirmed.
WhatsApp is the world's most popular messaging app, with over two billion active monthly users. In a bid to add an extra "layer of security", Meta - which owns WhatsApp - said the new feature will "protect your most intimate conversations".
The move comes after the boss of WhatsApp has warned the app could be banned in the UK due to the upcoming Online Safety Bill.
READ MORE: WhatsApp could disappear from the UK for good over privacy concerns
Will Cathcart, head of the app, said he rather British users were stopped from using WhatsApp than allow the Government required it to impinge on their privacy. The company said they would not comply if the new Online Safety Bill forced it to scan messages for child abuse material, the BBC reported.
The messaging app uses encryption to ensure that even it cannot read users' messages.
In March, Mr Cathcart said: "We won't lower the security of WhatsApp. We have never done that - and we have accepted being blocked in other parts of the world.
"When a liberal democracy says, 'Is it OK to scan everyone's private communication for illegal content?' that emboldens countries around the world that have very different definitions of illegal content to propose the same thing."
Confirming the new feature in a Facebook post on Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: "New locked chats in WhatsApp make your conversations more private.
"They're hidden in a password protected folder and notifications won't show sender or message content."
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