Facebook-owned text application WhatsApp has revealed a new feature that will make backing up data safer for users. One of the things that people have loved about WhatsApp until now is just how safe the chatting experience is inside the application. All the chats the users engage in, be it groups or individual chats, people can sit safely because all of their chat is end-to-end encrypted. But the same wasn’t the case with cloud backups. WhatsApp didn’t offer encrypted cloud backups, neither for iOS nor Android devices. But that’s changing now.
WhatsApp Now Offering Encrypted Chat Backups
Mark Zuckerberg broke the news to the world by writing in a post that WhatsApp is now the only texting application in the world that offers both encrypted messaging and backups. Zuckerberg mentioned that it wasn’t easy reaching such a stage since there were a lot of technical challenges.
WhatsApp Will Allow Users to Backup Chats This Way
WhatsApp said that it will now allow its users to backup their chat data with the help of encryption keys. This will be available for both iOS and Android devices. Users can lock their chat backup by using a 64-digit encryption key that can be stored offline, or they can also create a password that will back up their encryption key in a cloud-based “backup key vault” developed by WhatsApp.
What’s worth noting here is that the cloud-stored encryption key can’t be used without the user’s password and the good thing is that WhatsApp doesn’t know that password. This will ensure that your chat backup data is absolutely safe.
WhatsApp said users could even reset the password in case they forget it. But it will be important for the users to store their 64-digit encryption key safely because if they lose that, WhatsApp won’t be able to help them. Losing the encryption key would mean users will lose their complete chats.
