WhatsApp for Android is getting this killer upgrade

(Prototype credit: Anadolu Bureau / Getty Images)

WhatsApp on Android phones will soon let y'all unlock the app with facial recognition as well as with a fingerprint.

WABetaInfo has shared details of this feature later examining the newly released beta v2.20.203.3. Although already present on the iOS version of WhatsApp, working with both Face ID and Bear on ID, the electric current live Android version of WhatsApp can simply secure itself with a fingerprint.

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You tin't use the feature yet, fifty-fifty if y'all download the beta, simply the presence of the menus in this version suggests that in that location volition be a usable version before long.

WhatsApp Android Biometric Lock — (Image credit: WABetaInfo)

Yous are already able to secure WhatsApp with a fingerprint, and that option remains. Notwithstanding the feature has been renamed from Fingerprint Lock to Biometric Lock in order to reflect the wider variety of options. Information technology will work fifty-fifty if you lot have only facial recognition enabled without a registered fingerprint.

All modern Android phones are capable of facial recognition. All the same without additional sensors to scan the shape of the face too as the epitome, these solutions are less secure than Apple's Face ID, which uses an infra-red dot projector. The only comparable Android alternatives are Confront Unlock on the Google Pixel 4, or 3D Confront Unlock on the Huawei Mate thirty, P40 series or the newly revealed Mate 40 Pro.

The other new characteristic introduced in this beta build is Join Missed Calls. This lets you join a chat group's voice call more easily if you lot declined initially, simply later open up the app while the telephone call is withal live. Similar Biometric Lock, this characteristic is also not nonetheless usable, but looks to be well on the way to going alive.

Richard is a Tom's Guide staff author based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, gaming, audio and whatsoever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's as well written for WIRED U.K., The Annals and Creative Bloq. When not at piece of work, he's likely thinking well-nigh how to brew the perfect cup of specialty java.