Social Media · iPhone

Lock a WhatsApp Chat with Face ID on iPhone

Source-checked 12 August 2026About 3 minutes

Answer

In WhatsApp on iPhone, open Chats, touch and hold the conversation, select Lock chat, and authenticate with Face ID. WhatsApp moves the conversation to Locked chats and hides its sender and message text in notifications. This protects one chat, not the whole WhatsApp app, and the other people in the conversation are not notified.

Find the chat you want to protect

Open WhatsApp on the iPhone and select Chats. Find the individual or group conversation, then read its name carefully before continuing. You do not need to open the conversation.

Lock the conversation

Touch and hold the conversation in the Chats list, then select Lock chat. Depending on the app language, the control may be called Chat block. Authenticate when iPhone presents Face ID or the available device-authentication prompt. WhatsApp should remove the conversation from the normal list; nobody else in the chat receives a lock notification.

Open Locked chats

On the main Chats list, swipe down and select Locked chats. Authenticate with Face ID; the conversation you locked should appear inside. If you previously hid this folder with a secret code, select the search bar, enter that code, and then open Locked chats instead.

Verify the lock

Ask the contact to send a harmless test message while WhatsApp is closed. A locked-chat notification should say WhatsApp or WhatsApp: 1 new message instead of showing the sender or message. Open Locked chats again with Face ID and confirm the message reached the correct conversation.

If it does not work

If Lock chat is missing after you touch and hold the conversation, update WhatsApp from its official App Store page and compare the menu with WhatsApp's current iPhone Help Center instructions. Do not follow an older Contact Info screenshot just because it looks similar.
If WhatsApp says device authentication is not set up, open iPhone Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Set Up Face ID and finish Apple's enrollment process, then return to WhatsApp and repeat the lock action.
If Locked chats does not appear when you swipe down, check whether you hid the folder with a secret code. Enter that code in the Chats search bar; do not use Unlock and clear locked chats as a shortcut because WhatsApp warns that it clears the messages and media in those chats.
To remove the protection later, open Locked chats, touch and hold the conversation, select Unlock chat, and authenticate. The conversation should return to the normal Chats list.

Sources and verification

Checked against official documentation on 12 August 2026. Scope: iPhone.

WhatsApp's current iPhone instructions document a press-and-hold Lock chat action, Locked chats access, device authentication, and hidden sender and message details in notifications. The older Contact Info path is no longer used here.