Here’s how THIS WhatsApp feature will protect chat backups

WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption has been one of the most important features of the messaging app as it ensures to protect the privacy of users. It is constantly experimenting with new features so that they do not lose out on the user base as now there are rivals like Telegram and others who are getting into this space.

The recent announcement has features like multi-device support and sending ‘view once’ images which will soon see the light of the day. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has come up with a new feature that eventually will secure users’ backups. 

Recently, WhatsApp started testing a feature wherein it would allow users to encrypt their chats while they already had a backup in Google Drive and iCloud. This holds huge importance as cloud backups are not end-to-end encrypted which basically means that any user with malicious intention can easily sneak into your backups and would eventually breach your privacy. End-to-end encryption for backups on WhatsApp will solve this problem at the end.

WABetaInfo has now revealed that the messaging app is currently working on bringing in end-to-end encryption to local backups which would be similar to the cloud backups. The website further shared a screenshot of the chat backup screen on Android that shows both local and Google Drive backups as end-to-end encrypted.

Notably, the local backups on WhatsApp are protected by the phone number which comes down to the fact that anybody possessing a copy of your local ‘db.crypt’ files can easily restore a backup of your messages and read them -- after logging in using an OTP from your phone number. This can be very dangerous.

Meanwhile, there are fewer details available on how WhatsApp plans to implement this feature but it can be assumed that the app may ask users to enter a passcode or passphrase that will decrypt their local backups the same way it will decrypt their cloud backups with the upcoming end-to-end backups feature. 

WABetaInfo informed that this feature is currently in working mode and would be up for use in the future.