WhatsApp has always stated that any chats or messages saved in the cloud are not secured.
New Delhi: For Android and iOS users, WhatsApp chat backup is a useful tool. With their registered account, everyone can back up their communications on Google Drive or iCloud. Although the feature has been there for a while, WhatsApp has always stated that any chats or messages saved in the cloud are not secured. The messaging app altered its mind and now encrypts chat backups from beginning to end.
So, if you’ve been curious about how the function works and how you can protect your essential WhatsApp chat backups by encrypting them, here’s how it is done.
Here’s how to enable end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp chat backups:
To safeguard the chat backups, take these steps on any Android phone running the newest WhatsApp version.
1. Open WhatsApp and select Settings from the three-dot menu in the top-right corner, which is close to the Search button.
2. On this page, look for the Chats option and click it.
3. Tap on the Chat backup option after scrolling down to find it.
4. The End-to-end encryption backup option is located just below the green Back up button. WhatsApp appears to have turned it off by default, as it says Off in the menu.
5. When you select the feature, WhatsApp takes you to a new page where you can enable end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp chat backups. “No one, including Google and WhatsApp, will be able to access it,” it claims. WhatsApp also displays the current size of your Google Drive chat backup, which includes media assets.
To enable end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp chat backups, click the Turn on button.
6. The person must then protect the end-to-end encrypted chat backups using a Password or a 64-digit encryption key in the next phase, according to WhatsApp. Six characters and one letter can be used to make the password. You can also produce the 64-digit key and save it somewhere else because WhatsApp does not have a copy. Press Keep end-to-end encryption enabled for your WhatsApp chat backups.
According to WhatsApp, you’ll need to have one of these enabled in order to restore the backup.
WhatsApp issues a strong warning that it will not be able to help you retrieve your chat backup if you forget your password/key or lose your phone.
