These days, with the amount of hacks and security breaches which have made the headlines, it’s always good to keep your data as safe as possible. WhatsApp has been working to make their users feel a bit more safe, even after being bought by Facebook a few years ago. Earlier this year, WhatsApp turned on encryption. So now all messages are encrypted from end-to-end. Meaning that they are encrypted from the minute they leave your device and encrypted even when they hit the other person’s device. Now, WhatsApp has added another feature, and it’s one that most major companies have already included in their apps and services. That is two-step verification, also known as two-factor authentication sometimes.
What two-step verification does is it essentially adds another level of security to your account. That way not just anyone can login to your WhatsApp account. As that is definitely not something that users would be fond of. It’s only available in the latest beta of WhatsApp right now, but it allows you to add an email address to your account, as well as a six-digit code which you’ll need to use to be able to get back into your account. Especially necessary if you switch phones or do a factory reset.
What’s also interesting, is that in WhatsApp FAQ about this new feature, WhatsApp says that you will not be permitted to reverify your phone number on WhatsApp within 7 days of last using WhatsApp without your passcode. Which means if you forget your passcode, and did not have an email set up, then you won’t be able to reverify yourself on WhatsApp for 7 days. Once those 7 days are up, you’ll be able to reverify on WhatsApp again without your passcode. However, you will lose all of your pending messages. Which means everyone that messaged you during those 7 days, their messages will be deleted and you will never see them.
This is all part of the latest beta and while two-step verification may seem like a major pain, it is definitely necessary. Especially if you are wanting to make sure your messages and your WhatsApp account stays secure in this day and age.