WhatsApp’s Upcoming Security Feature Asks for Users’ Email Address

WhatsApp's security features may soon welcome a newcomer.

The company behind the secure messaging app is reportedly working on a feature that asks users for their email addresses to make their accounts more secure.

This new feature is one of the latest WhatsApp is working on to improve user experience and the app's security.

Email Addresses For WhatsApp

WhatsApp is known for asking users to register their phone's mobile number to use its app, and for a good reason: it's to make contacting them that much easier on the app.

However, hackers time and again proved that smartphones could be hacked into through malware, allowing them to access the apps installed within and send unwanted messages to other people. To remedy this, and prevent hackers from sending unwanted messages to a user's contacts, WhatsApp is developing a security feature to protect accounts using an email address, Per WABetaInfo.

This new security feature will not only secure a user's account but will also be used to verify that a user's account is actually theirs. Unfortunately, there isn't much information about it as of press time since WhatsApp is still developing it. As such, there isn't any information that tells how the security feature works.

The feature could work like WhatsApp's biometrics lock that prevents other people than the user from accessing the app. However, hackers could bypass this feature if they knew about the user's email address beforehand.

This security feature could be used to verify if a user is logging into their account from another phone or device for the first time, like sending a login code. Unfortunately, hackers could pass through this method if they already hacked the victim's email address.

Despite this limited information, the publication reports that the feature will be optional to use, much like WhatsApp's biometrics lock. It is also different from the one that asks for users' email addresses when configuring the two-step verification.

Regardless, WhatsApp seems eager to develop this feature, which may even appear in one of the app's future updates. Unfortunately, because the feature is in its early stages of development, beta testers will have to wait for them to try it for themselves.

Other Upcoming WhatsApp Features

WhatsApp's new email address-based security feature is one of many features WhatsApp is developing for public release. You may recall it released its new video messaging feature to the public, allowing them to send 60-second video messages instead of audio ones through WhatsApp.

It is also working on a chat list filter that lets users see messages by their classification.

The company also released a redesigned sticker and GIF picker for iOS devices - a feature it previously worked on that got a public release in early July. It allows users to search for their favorite stickers and GIF reactions more easily than before.

These features will arrive on the app in future updates, though WhatsApp doesn't reveal when these features will become available.