WhatsApp will soon give users the option to encrypt local backups of their conversations. You will then need to enter an encryption key or password if you want to restore your backup data. The feature is currently in the testing phase.
Since 2014, messages you send to your contacts via WhatsApp have been end-to-end encrypted. This means that no one can read the content of conversations if the messages had to be intercepted. The message of each individual message that is sent can only be deciphered by the recipient with whom you share the same security key.
🆕 WhatsApp is also working to bring end-to-end encrypted LOCAL backups on WhatsApp beta for Android!
They were working on E2EE backups on Google Drive, but they will extend the feature for local backups as well.This feature will be available in a future update. pic.twitter.com/2YbulmqiUQ
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) August 3, 2021
End-to-end encryption works well, but it’s just not available for the conversations you back up. It recently became known that the messaging service is working on the ability to encrypt conversations you save in Google Drive, and rumor propagator WABetaInfo now says on Twitter that that functionality will also work for local backups. These are conversations that you save locally on your phone or on other storage media.
That encryption of local backup should work in exactly the same way as with cloud backups. You can create a password that you have to enter every time you want to recover conversations. Another alternative is to enter a 64-character encryption key, but that method comes with a security warning. If you lose that key, you also lose access to the saved conversations. In the event of a password that you lose, there are options to reset that password.
A lot of new features have been added to WhatsApp in recent weeks. On Wednesday WhatsApp made the disappearing photos available, you can send photos in higher quality, WhatsApp got a new archive for chats, group video calls work better and the long-awaited multi-device feature is available. The latter allows you to use WhatsApp on five different devices. WhatsApp is currently testing encryption for local backups with a small test group. The feature is not yet available in the stable version of WhatsApp or in the beta.
