Encrypted cloud backups are coming to WhatsApp on Android.
WhatsApp has begun rolling out a beta version of its popular messaging app supporting encrypted backups on Android devices.
While WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, the backup copies housed in connected cloud services like Google Drive aren’t.
That’s close to change, a minimum of Android users, consistent with WABetaInfo, which reports that the new WhatsApp Beta release, v2.21.15.5, can now encrypt the cloud backups.
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Encrypted backups
Users who use the newest beta release of WhatsApp will choose to enable the end-to-end encrypted backups to feature inside the app’s settings.
Once enabled, the feature offers users a few mechanisms to secure their backups. the primary involves fixing a password, and therefore the second uses a 64-digit encryption key.
Irrespective of the tactic you select, you’ll need the password or the encryption key to revive messages from your cloud backup. Since this is often end-to-end encryption, the password/encryption key never leaves your devices, and WhatsApp won’t be ready to restore your messages just in case you forget/misplace them.
Note, however, that the end-to-end encrypted backups feature isn’t yet generally available. Instead, WhatsApp has begun pushing it bent users who’ve opted in to check unreleased versions of the WhatsApp app. There’s also no word on WhatsApp’s plans to increase the feature to iOS devices and cloud platforms like iCloud.
