WhatsApp is testing a new privacy feature that could give users more control over sensitive conversations. The new feature, called Restricted Chat, is now rolling out to some Android and iPhone users enrolled in WhatsApp’s beta program.
The feature was first spotted last month when WhatsApp started working on it as an extension of its existing Advanced Chat Privacy feature. Restricted Chat takes the idea further by limiting several ways in which people can interact with or access content from a protected conversation.
According to WABetaInfo, the feature is currently available to some users running WhatsApp beta version 2.26.36.4 on Android and version 26.39.10.20 on iOS. As with most WhatsApp beta features, the rollout appears to be limited, so installing the latest beta version does not guarantee that the option will be available.
Restricted Chat is an optional privacy setting that users can enable for individual conversations. It is not turned on automatically for all WhatsApp chats. Instead, users can enable it from the chat info screen when they want additional restrictions for a particular conversation.
Once enabled, WhatsApp displays a message inside the chat informing participants that Restricted Chat is active. The feature then applies four restrictions designed to prevent chat content from being easily taken outside the conversation or accessed through certain services.
The first restriction prevents media shared in the conversation from being automatically saved to a user’s device. This can be useful for private conversations where participants may share sensitive photos or videos.
Restricted Chat also prevents users from exporting the conversation. WhatsApp’s regular chat export feature allows users to create a copy of a conversation outside the app, but that option is disabled for restricted chats.
Another important change is the removal of Meta AI features from the conversation. Users will not be able to use Meta AI in a chat where Restricted Chat has been enabled.
The feature also disables linked devices for the conversation. WhatsApp says this is intended to help prevent people from using unofficial clients or AI agents to access messages in the restricted chat.
These restrictions make Restricted Chat different from simply hiding or locking a conversation. The feature is designed to limit what participants can do with the content inside a conversation, rather than only preventing other people from seeing the chat on a device.
Enabling Restricted Chat does not change WhatsApp’s underlying encryption for the conversation. The company says that messages and calls remain protected by end-to-end encryption whether Restricted Chat is enabled or not. The new feature adds additional controls around how the content can be accessed, exported or used within WhatsApp.
This could make the feature useful for conversations involving sensitive personal information, private media or discussions where participants do not want the content to be easily copied or accessed through other tools.
WhatsApp is currently testing Restricted Chat with a limited number of beta users on both Android and iOS. The company has not announced when the feature will be rolled out to everyone.
The gradual rollout also means that beta users may not see the option immediately even if they are running the supported WhatsApp version. WhatsApp typically enables new features remotely for selected beta testers before expanding them to a wider group.
For now, there is no confirmed timeline for the public release of Restricted Chat. If WhatsApp decides to bring the feature to the stable version, it could provide users with another way to protect particularly private conversations without having to rely only on WhatsApp’s existing privacy and chat-locking features.
