WhatsApp is the popular messenger app that is available for a number of operating systems. For the mobile platforms, it supports iOS, Windows, Linux and macOS. It has a unique feature that allows to encrypt your files before they are stored on the target storage device.
WhatsApp is finally able to create an encrypted backup of all the chats. Earlier, WhatsApp could create the backup of the chats but they stayed unencrypted. You could store them on the local storage or your Google Drive account in the unencrypted format. This meant that anyone could open those archives from your smartphone and look at all the messages or media. But now WhatsApp offers encryption for the chats backup for everyone.
The encryption for the chats backup feature in WhatsApp is disabled by default. Along with the backups, they have also disabled the encryption setire. But you can easily enable it in a few easy steps:
- Launch WhatsApp, tap on the ellipses icon to pull down the menu. From this menu select Settings.
- On the settings screen, select Chats and then Chat Backup.
- On the chat backup screen, tap on End-to-end encrypted backup and then tap on the big Turn on button.
- You will have to pick two options – use a password for encryption or use a 64-digit encryption key. In the latter case, it will generate a 64-digit key which you can save somewhere for later use. You will have to use this password or the 64-digit encryption key whenever you want to restore the chats from the backup.
WhatsApp does not store this information which means if you forget the password or the 64-digit encryption key then you will lose access to the backup. This is why it is very important to print the 64-digit key and keep it secure somewhere in your home or office. In a similar way, we should use a password that is easy to remember.