Chat lock
WhatsApp’s more innovative and marquee privacy feature of 2023.
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Content positioning, naming, localization and full end-to-end flows for V1-V3 projects as the lead content designer.
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V1: iOS/Android features launched in 2023. Iterations over the next year added V2-V3, which expanded feature to linked devices and improved security updates.
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Working on a project that allows users ultimate chat privacy when having to share their phones.
Chat lock: A new privacy feature that lets users hide and lock their most personal chats from anyone with physical access to their phone.
Why did we need this feature?
More than 80% of global WhatsApp users share their phone with household members like spouses, children and parents. This can compromise the privacy of their most personal chats.
In 2022, WhatsApp wanted a feature that could directly compete with Telegram’s secret chats. The company’s goals were to focus on a privacy forward feature that would help it stay competitive and innovative in a time when competitors were gaining traction. While chat lock launched as the marquee privacy feature of 2023, we still iterated over time to include additional security measures like a secret code and locking on multiple devices types.
Tl;dr:
I led all content positioning and framing for chat lock V1-V3 projects as the lead content designer. I worked with multiple designers over 2 years to iterate and expand the security of this feature.
Naming this innovative feature was exciting and included a thorough process I highlighted in my Button Talk in 2024!
Overall scope:
-WhatsApp consumer app
-iOS, Android, web and linked devices
Naming/terminology
All chat lock flows including onboarding new users, privacy settings and chat termination flows.
Auditing competitor apps with similar features
Localization
Positioning/value prop messaging
Linked devices
Error handling
User research prep and analyzation
Marketing input
Legal disclosures
Help center articles
Results:
-Feature grew from tens of millions to nearly a hundred million daily active users within one year.
-Substantial lift in feature adoption and engagement after content updates shipped.
-Resolved the top user support issue by adding alternative setup paths.