New WhatsApp feature coming! It will protect even these conversations of yours; here is how

WhatsApp is working on implementing end-to-end encryption on its chat backups on Google Drive. It is working on protecting the chat backups from unauthorised access.

WhatsApp (REUTERS)

WhatsApp safeguards the conversations that take place on its platform using end-to-end encryption. This ensures that no one, not even WhatsApp, is able to check the contents of a chat. However, this safety measure is not extended to chat backups on Google Drive. To protect users' conversations, WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will protect chat backups using the same technique that it uses to safeguard messages being exchanged on its platform.

WABetaInfo, which first reported this feature, last month said that WhatsApp was working on including a 64-digit encryption key to safeguard chat backups. Now, the blog site reports how the Facebook-owned messaging app was ensuring that chat backups on Google Drive are not accessed by malicious actors.

The blog site says that WhatsApp is clarifying that the 64-digit encryption key can only contain numeric digits and lowercase letters between letters ‘a' and ‘f'. WhatsApp wants to use hexadecimal for encrypting chat backups. The blog site says that this feature will protect users' chat backups from unauthorised access on Google Drive with a password that won't be shared on Facebook, WhatsApp, Google or Apple.

As far as availability is concerned, the encrypted chat backups feature is still in the developmental phase. It will be available on WhatsApp for Android beta with future updates.

Separately, WhatsApp is also working on changing the colour of UI elements in chat notifications on Android. In a separate report, the blog site says that WhatsApp is planning to change the colour of Reply and Mark as Read buttons from dark Green to dark Blue when Dark Mode has been enabled. This feature is available in version 2.21.12.12 of WhatsApp's Android beta app. The company is also planning to change the colour of these elements in light mode. But that change isn't visible to all beta testers yet. This development follows another move by WhatsApp wherein the company changed the colour of the profile icon of individual and group, where no image had been set, from a Grey to Blue.