WhatsApp's Restricted Chat feature is now available to beta users on Android and iOS

Last month, we learned that WhatsApp was developing a feature called Restricted Chat as an upgrade to Advanced Chat Privacy. The feature is now rolling out to some Android and iOS users enrolled in WhatsApp's beta program.

WABetaInfo reports that Restricted Chat is available to some WhatsApp users on beta version 2.26.36.4 of WhatsApp for Android and 26.39.10.20 of WhatsApp for iOS.

What is WhatsApp's Restricted Chat feature, and what does it do?

For those unaware, the Restricted Chat feature - like Advanced Chat Privacy - is optional, so it's not enabled for all chats by default. It only works in conversations where the user manually turns it on. You can enable it from the chat info screen.

Once Restricted Chat is enabled, WhatsApp displays a message in the chat and applies four restrictions that limit what people in that conversation can do with the messages.

Those four restrictions are:

• People in Restricted Chat can't automatically save media to their device.
• People in Restricted Chat can't export the chat.
• People in Restricted Chat can't use Meta AI features in the chat.
• People in Restricted Chat can't use linked devices for the chat. WhatsApp says "this helps to prevent people in the chat from using unofficial clients or AI agents to access it."

WhatsApp also assures that, whether Restricted Chat is enabled or not, all messages and calls in the chat are protected with end-to-end encryption.

It's unclear when WhatsApp will roll out Restricted Chat to all users publicly, so if you want to try it, you'll have to enroll in WhatsApp's beta program.

Source 1, Source 2