WhatsApp, the hugely popular social media app, is testing quite a controversial feature in its next update for which they already received a lot of flak.
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WhatsApp is a freeware cross-platform messaging application that forayed in the market with the simple goal of privacy. It was later acquired by Facebook for $19.3 billion.
Users have welcomed efforts to provide new features like stickers and group video calling. However, the new touted feature might not please it’s half a billion users.
WABetaInfo twitter handle known for their reliable information about WhatsApp recently reported about the new authentication feature.
Authentication Feature
As reported by WABetaInfo the new Android beta users on version 2.19.83 reported about this new authentication feature.
The beta tracking Twitter handle also shared a screenshot showcasing the feature. The Twitter handle also mentioned how to unlock this option as it is disabled by default.
Users have to browse to Settings >Account >Privacy > Use Fingerprint to Unlock. After this option is toggled on WhatsApp will use users fingerprint for authentication.
It should be noted that user can also set a timeout limit for locking the application which varies as 1 minute, 10 minutes and 30 minutes. After the timeout period app will lock itself down and users will have to authenticate again.
The controversial part of this WhatsApp update is that after enabling fingerprint authentication users cannot take the screenshot of any conversation. Many users took to Twitter to show their anger towards this feature.
One user tweeted that Whatsapp should be working on the highly requested dark mode and not on this useless feature. Other posted that this feature makes no sense.
The authentication feature is already available on the iOS stable version which supports TouchID for fingerprint and FaceID for facial authentication.
Dark Mode
As requested by users the beta tracker also posted some images flaunting the dark mode on WhatsApp. However, it is not clear when these features will come to the stable version.
